ASHGABAT
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday rejected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s charge that if he were a woman he would not have invaded Ukraine.
\nSpeaking at a news conference in the early hours of Thursday during a visit to Turkmenistan, Putin pointed to former British leader Margaret Thatcher\u2019s decision to send troops into the Falklands as a rebuttal of Johnson\u2019s theory.
\nJohnson on Wednesday dubbed Putin\u2019s decision to launch what Moscow calls a \u201cspecial military operation\u201d against Ukraine a \u201cperfect example of toxic masculinity\u201d and mocked Putin\u2019s macho posturing.
\nHitting back, Putin told reporters: \u201cI just want to recall the events of recent history, when Margaret Thatcher decided to launch military operations against Argentina for the Falkland Islands. So, a woman took the decision to launch military action.
\n\u201cTherefore it\u2019s not an entirely accurate reference from the British Prime Minister to what is happening today.\u201d
\nThe Russian leader went on to criticise Britain\u2019s move, 40 years ago, to respond militarily to Argentina\u2019s attempt to seize the sparsely populated British-run islands in the South Atlantic.
\n\u201cWhere are the Falkland Islands and where is Britain?\u201d Putin asked. \u201cThatcher\u2019s actions were dictated by nothing less than imperial ambitions and (a desire to) confirm their imperial status.\u201d
\nMoscow repeatedly rails against Western military interventions in the likes of the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq as examples of Western imperialism and hypocrisy.
\nBut during his two-decade rule Putin himself has faced multiple charges of imperialism, wanting to forcefully expand Russia\u2019s borders and influence across the former Soviet space, and has himself said he wished he could reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union.
\nRussia\u2019s February 24 invasion of Ukraine has destroyed numerous cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced millions from their homes across Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ASHGABAT Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday rejected British Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s charge that if he were a woman he would not have invaded Ukraine. Speaking at a news conference in the early hours of Thursday during a visit to Turkmenistan, Putin pointed to former British leader Margaret Thatcher\u2019s decision to send troops into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[9228,9227,633,2100],"class_list":{"0":"post-269152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-british-pm","9":"tag-invasded-ukraine","10":"tag-vladimir-putin","11":"tag-woman"},"yoast_head":"\n