{"id":81755,"date":"2024-06-26T15:05:08","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/26\/salisbury-reform-uk-candidate-defends-calling-putin-very-good\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T15:05:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T15:05:08","slug":"salisbury-reform-uk-candidate-defends-calling-putin-very-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/26\/salisbury-reform-uk-candidate-defends-calling-putin-very-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Salisbury Reform UK candidate defends calling Putin ‘very good’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Sophie Parker,\u00a0<\/span>Marie Lennon,\u00a0<\/span>BBC News, Wiltshire<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Julian Malins is standing as the Reform UK candidate in Salisbury<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A Reform UK general election candidate who described Russian president Vladimir Putin as “very good” has clarified his comments.<\/p>\n

When asked about remarks he gave at a hustings event, Julian Malins said the leader was a “good Russian president” but not a good man “in the Christian sense”. <\/p>\n

Mr Malins is standing to be MP in Salisbury, a Wiltshire town where a woman was poisoned and later died after a suspected Russian nerve agent attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, said he did not agree with the original comment, but he did not want party candidates to be told what to think.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Malins told a hustings event on Sunday he had met Mr Putin, the Salisbury Journal reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I have actually met Putin and had a 10-minute chat with him, and he seemed very good,” Mr Malins reportedly said.<\/p>\n

When asked about the comments by BBC Radio Wiltshire, he said: “He’s a very popular Russian president – as such, he’s a good Russian president.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t follow in the Christian sense he’s a good man, of course not.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘A wicked act’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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BBC Radio Wiltshire asked Mr Malins about his remarks in context of the 2018 Salisbury nerve-agent attack.<\/p>\n

He said: “The poisoning was a wicked act, unquestionably, and caused immense damage to this city.”<\/p>\n

The Kremlin has always denied any responsibility for the attack.<\/p>\n

Speaking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine<\/a>, Mr Malins said Mr Putin needed to be involved in negotiations to end the war and called for “diplomacy”.<\/p>\n

He talked about the thousands of people being killed and wounded and said “the adults in the room should be negotiating, not escalating”.<\/p>\n

“He’s the president of the country with the largest land mass on the planet.<\/p>\n

“Simply to categorise him as a wicked person with whom we can’t deal is absurd,” Mr Malins added.<\/p>\n

Responding to the candidate’s initial comments calling Mr Putin “very good”, Mr Farage said: “I don’t agree with it, but do I want a political party to be full of nodding donkeys who were told what they must and must not think? No I don’t.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Dan O’Brien hosts a debate with Salisbury candidates, including Julian Malins<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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It is not the first time the party leader has had to address comments made by candidates.<\/a><\/p>\n

Melksham & Devizes candidate Malcolm Cupis described women dancing in a music video in derogatory terms on social media, calling one a “malignant old hag”.<\/p>\n

Mr Cupis told the BBC he stood by his comments.<\/p>\n

He said of the video: \u201cThis disgusting performance should not be available to\u2026 children. It demeans girls and encourages misogyny in boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to Mr Cupis’ language, Nigel Farage said: “It’s not polite, but you’ve got to remember something: we’re a start-up and we’re going to have one or two candidates who are a bit rough round the edges.”<\/p>\n

“All political parties have these problems,” he added.<\/p>\n