(NewsGlobal.com)- British Foreign Office minister James Cleverly has called on military chiefs in Russia to stage a coup to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from attempting to realize his “Tsarist fantasy.”
It comes as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, with bombs continuing to drop on its capital city of Kiev and surrounding regions.
Cleverly is one of several leading political figures across the West calling on Russia to cease militaristic action in Ukraine, but he has taken the unusual step of calling on Russian soldiers to ignore their commands and stage a coup against the president. He suggested that Russian officials “are in a position to stop this” and that the West is calling on them to do so.
Cleverly, who is the British Minister of State at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, has been warning about the likelihood of a Russian invasion for some time. Speaking to MSNBC earlier this month, he said that Russia’s claims of withdrawing troops from the border of Ukraine were not credible and that an attack remained imminent.
“We’re still very much in the belief that an invasion could be imminent,” he said. “The U.S. has declassified a selective intelligence which I think proves that the claims by Russia of moving numbers of troops away from Ukrainian border are just not credible…far from it, in fact, we’re seeing increasing numbers of Russian troops.”
This week, Cleverly told Britain’s Sky News that Ukraine is not part of Russia.
“The fantasy that President Putin is trying to play out, creating some kind of Tsarist expansionist Russia, absolutely has to be stopped,” he said.
But what are the honest chances of the Russian military defying one of the most corrupt and ruthless leaders in the world?
