EU politician says Nigel Farage defended Putin 'all the time'

A member of the European parliament has claimed Nigel Farage defended Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin “all the time” during his stint in the EU.

Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgian politician, made the comments about Farage during an interview on LBC with Nick Ferrari.

They were prompted after Ferrari repeated claims made by Farage that the conflict we are seeing in Ukraine, perpetrated by the Russians, is because NATO “tried to poke the Russian bear with a stick”.

In response, Verhofstadt spoke about Farage’s behaviour when he too was a member of the European parliament (a position he held from 1999 until Britain left the EU), saying he was always “defending” Putin.

Verhofstadt said: “There he was all the time defending Putin. I found it a shame. I’m thinking [back] to Winston Churchill who had… another opinion about the responsibilities of Britain than Farage colluding with Putin.”

Ferrari challenged Verhofstadt on the claim that Farage colluded with Putin.

Verhofstadt replied: “So he was simply defending the positions of Russia and denying, in fact, Ukrainians and Belarus and Georgians and Moldavia to chose their own path to democracy.

“But he’s not an exception, you know. Every extreme right-wing politician in Europe has one or other link with Russia and with Putin.”

He also went on to say that Farage is one of Russia’s right-wing European “cheerleaders”.

One person reacted to Verhofstadt’s claims, writing on Twitter: “I am in full admiration of Guy V. He would stick up for Ireland and called out Brexit for what it was.

“He had also been correctly reading the right wing politicians for years. Now, he calls it out again, leaving all Putin admirers, nowhere to hide.”

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Another said: “He's spot on. Why post-Brexit UK is in such an extremely limited place. Putin silenced us in Brexit.”

It’s not the first time Farage has been accused of being a Putin-apologist as a recent video emerged showing all the times he praised the Russian leader.

Indy100 has contacted Farage for comment.

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