Ex-Minister hits out at Kremlin
‘thuggery’

Dr Fox said: “Much of this crisis was made in the Kremlin and there are those there who have never really got over the idea of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

“Their insistence on having what they call ‘the near abroad’, in other words those countries that they demand to have control over, is anachronistic and destabilising.

“We have to make very clear at all times that sovereign nations have to be able to exercise their self-determination free from hindrance and interference.

“There is a pattern of behaviour that has been established, a very thuggish pattern of behaviour by the Kremlin, bullying the Ukraine through gas, the invasion of Georgia where they still have troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the attitude they had towards Syria.”

Calling for a “realistic” approach to Moscow he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: “We have got to stop wilfully fooling ourselves that Russia is a helpful and constructive partner in global affairs.”