World leaders and former officials have turned on ‘insane’ Vladimir Putin as a Foreign Office minister urged Russian generals to stage a coup to stop his ‘Tsarist fantasy’.
FCDO minister James Cleverly said military chiefs know the Russian president is increasingly ‘isolated’ and ‘illogical’ as he tries to ‘recreate a Russian Empire in his mind’.
And in a highly unusual step, he effectively appealed for them to stage a coup – saying ‘they are in a position to stop this and we call on them to do so’.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Secretary-General of NATO, told ITV’s Peston programme that Russia’s current behaviour is not rational or logical.
Czech President Miloš Zeman said it was a mistake that he once believed that Putin was not ‘crazy enough’ to attack Ukraine – calling the autocrat a ‘madman’.
The extraordinary intervention came as ministers warned that Mr Putin looking increasingly unstable, after a bizarre address to the nation where he ranted at length about the Soviet Union’s history.
Ukrainian MP Vadym Galaichuk echoed this during an interview on Sky News when he said: ‘The Kremlin has just gone bonkers.’
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said yesterday that he appeared to have ‘gone Tonto’.
One Cabinet minister told MailOnline earlier this week that the Russian premier might have been playing too much ‘Call of Duty’.
During a round of interviews this morning, Mr Cleverly told Sky News: ‘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.
Ukraine is a huge country physically. I have no doubt the Ukrainian people will be ferocious in defence of their homelands.
‘The military leaders must know that this will come at a huge cost – not just to Ukrainians but to Russians.
‘They are in a position, even if Vladimir Putin won’t, they are in a position to stop this and we call on them to do so.’
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said he was against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as he stood trial from prison after President Vladimir Putin launched an attack.
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