'Most admired world leader & questionable human being': everything Nigel Farage has said about Vladimir Putin

On Friday Farage told the BBC’s Panorama Interviews programme that “we provoked this war”, in reference to the expansion of Nato and the European Union. He later doubled down on this, telling ITV: “I think the West historically, up until a few years ago, provoked Putin, stupidly. I felt the ever, ever eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving Putin a reason to go to war.” The Reform UK leader said he wanted to open up negotiations with Russia as the war it at a “stalemate”.

Rishi Sunak said the provocation comment “was wrong and only plays into Putin’s hands”. While Keir Starmer described it as “disgraceful, and Boris Johnson said it was “morally repugnant”. This is not the first controversial comment Farage has made about the dictatorial Putin, and he previously worked for the Russian state television channel Russia Today. Here’s everything you need to know.

‘Most admired world leader’

Farage’s most controversial comments on Putin came back in 2014, shortly after Russia had annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in a premonition of the 2022 invasion. In an interview with Alistair Campbell in GQ, Farage said Putin was the world leader he most admired. When ask this question, Farage responded: “As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin. The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?"

Days before Farage had said the EU had “blood on its hands” over Putin’s annexation of Crimea and the brutal repression of protests in Syria. He said EU leaders had been “weak and vain”, adding: “If you poke the Russian bear with a stick he will respond." A few days later, in a televised debate on the BBC, Nick Clegg accused Farage of admiring Putin.

The then Ukip leader responded by saying the situation in Ukraine isn’t a “simple black and white issue”. He added: “What I said was he [Putin] outwitted and outclassed you all over Syria. I also said I didn’t like him as a human being and I wouldn’t want to live in Russia.”

‘Very questionable human being’

In 2018, Farage told Newsweek that Putin is a “very questionable human being ... morally and in many other ways”. The then MEP said he would not take the Russian President “to meet Mum for a cup of tea”. In this interview, he claimed the west had a “strategic idea of encroaching on their [Russia’s] borders through Ukraine”. He added that this “really is what kicked off this whole new Cold War”. Pushing the blame around Ukraine towards Europe and the US as opposed to Russia is the exact line Putin uses.

Farage said: “I can’t call him [Putin] a force for good. I can say he’s a clever political operator and manipulator, clearly, he is.” He added: “We would have done better to recognise the there are some big issues on which we have a shared interest with Russia.” He reiterated his the point that the EU and Nato’s expansion towards Ukraine have made relations worse.

Farage said in an exasperated tone: “No, that does not mean that I like Mr Putin, does not mean I’m going to buy an apartment in Moscow or any of those things.”

‘I always thought we were dealing with someone very logical’

After Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Farage’s previous comments began to be brought again. But even after this, Farage appeared to support Putin’s original annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Speaking in America shortly after the full invasion, he said: “Vladimir Putin is a nationalist Russian. He wants to get back, at least I thought he wanted to get back, the Russian-speaking areas [of Ukraine] into his country. Those provinces in Ukraine, well, they are Russian-speaking … I always thought we were dealing with someone very logical, but now I don’t think he is.”

Farage said: “We have made mistakes, we have got things wrong, we have not been honest about much of our dealings with Ukraine and Russia. But we are where we are.” He then asked whether “something’s gone wrong with Putin” and added “he’s lost all logic and reason”.

‘Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if Trump was still President’

In January 2024, Farage got onto his favourite topic, Donald Trump. He told Sky News: “There is this sort of argument in Europe that he [Trump] will blow up Nato ... I don't believe any of that for a moment. What he wanted was for Nato members to pay their fair share. I don't believe that Putin would have invaded Ukraine had Trump been in the White House."

West and EU ‘provoked’ Putin into invading Ukraine

Now we come to some of Farage’s most recent comments, in that interview with Nick Robinson on the BBC on Friday (21 June). When asked about his previous comments, Farage told Robinson: “I said I disliked him as a person, but I admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control of running Russia.”

Farage added: “Right, I’ll tell you what you don’t know, I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and I said, and I quote, ‘there will be a war in Ukraine’. Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say ‘they’re coming for us again’ and to go to war.”

Farage went on to say he had been making similar comments “since the 1990s, ever since the fall of the (Berlin) Wall” and added: “Hang on a second, we provoked this war. It’s, you know, of course it’s his fault – he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse.”

‘We should negotiate with Putin’

On Monday (24 June), Farage doubled down on his Putin comments in an interview with ITV. Farage told Harry Horton: "Well, we've tried of course through sanctions to weaken him, but all that's actually done is drive him into the arms of China. He needs to know there's a threat now, he needs to know, he does need to know, it is so far and no further.

"I think the West historically, up until a few years ago, provoked Putin, stupidly. I felt the ever, ever eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving Putin a reason to go to war. I guess the question is, what do we do now? And yes, I do support us giving munitions and help to Ukraine, but I feel the war is a complete stalemate. I think the number of lives being lost is horrific.

“There have been no sensible substantive negotiations of any kind and even if negotiations to try and find a peace, to try and find a way through fail, I think it's better to have those negotiations than not."

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday.