“Vladimir, there are countries in the world where 12% of the population goes to the toilet on the street”: Boris Johnson wrote a response to Putin

At least one person benefited from Vladimir Putin's FT programmatic interview. The main candidate for the post of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in response to an article in the British The Daily Telegraph, in which he called on the British to prove that liberalism is alive by voting for Brexit, and reminded Putin of the 12% of Russians who have to go to the toilet on the street.

Reply to Putin. “Economic facts show that Vladimir Putin’s claims that liberalism has outlived its usefulness are monstrous stupidity,” Johnson writes in the article “We will prove Vladimir Putin wrong by leaving the EU on October 31.”

• Johnson lists the UK's economic achievements and recalls that they would not have been possible without democracy and the rule of law.
• “A country that has these essential building blocks of liberalism will be successful; a country that does not have them will end up in disaster. If your property can be confiscated without trial by the wife or son-in-law of the president, you will not start a business in this country and invest in it. If you can lose the contract of some politician, you will not give money for it, ”Johnson writes.
• If a politician cannot be removed democratically, corruption and inefficiency will increase, poverty will increase, and the people of the country will suffer, the candidate for premier concludes.

Quote:

“I would not want to focus too much on this, Vladimir, but there are countries in the world where capitalism is run by oligarchs and close associates of the leader, journalists are shot at, “liberal values” are mocked, and, according to Rosstat, a third of the country’s inhabitants cannot afford more than two pairs of shoes a year, 12% go to the toilet on the street, and real incomes have not grown for five years.

This suggests that the importance of liberal values ​​in ensuring that people have enough for bread cannot be overestimated. There is a direct link between social and political freedom and long-term and sustainable economic growth. Corruption, crime and kleptocracy will always stifle economic growth.”

What does Brexit have to do with it. Johnson writes that the UK will be the best example that liberalism is alive if it completes Brexit.

• The majority of the country's inhabitants voted for leaving the EU - now the government must ensure the implementation of this decision. Otherwise, it will turn out that people were formally asked for their opinion, but the decision was made without taking it into account - as in Moscow, where the same team mysteriously remains in power all the time, writes Johnson.
• Brexit will be a victory for liberalism and democratic principles: in the EU, power is centralized in the hands of a narrow circle of Brussels bureaucrats, decisions are made by a minority and in secret from the public, he adds.

In the context. In a long FT interview on the eve of the G20 summit, Vladimir Putin said that “the modern so-called liberal idea has simply outlived its usefulness” and “has become an absolute, although it runs counter to the interests of the majority of the population.” This, he said, happened when part of society opposed immigration, open borders and multiculturalism, Putin added. “The liberal idea assumes that nothing needs to be done. Migrants can kill, rob and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants must be protected. And what are these rights? Every crime must be punished,” he said.