Diane Abbott claims Jeremy Corbyn 'warned against Putin and his oligarchs for years' despite anti-NATO stance

Diane Abbott, Labour MP, has claimed Jeremy Corbyn’s warnings against Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin allies fell on deaf ears for years, despite the former Labour leader's long-standing opposition to NATO.

Ms Abbott posted on Twitter: “The truth about Jeremy Corbyn and Putin. He warned against him and his oligarchs for years. And was ignored.”

Linked to the MP’s social media post was an article that describes Mr Corbyn as one of Putin’s fiercest critics and that he “warned against him when others didn’t".

Diane Abbott's social media post
Twitter

Mr Corbyn, deputy president of the Stop The War Coalition, has previously called for the NATO alliance to be disbanded, saying it was set up to “promote a Cold War with the Soviet Union".

But in the article Ms Abbott directed her followers to, the author argues: “The truth is that no modern politician has been more consistent or more prescient when it comes to Putin than Corbyn. Far from being pro-Putin, Corbyn warned against him when others didn’t."

“...For the Tories and the Labour establishment, mocking Corbyn distracts from their own long-lived collaboration with Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs,” writes Peter Oborne, a journalist for the Middle East Eye.

Previously, Mr Corbyn has been under sustained criticism for his stance on NATO and comments regarding the Kremlin.

He was heavily criticised for failing to condemn Russia directly after the Salisbury poisoning where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were killed.

Boris Johnson said he was "siding with Putin" as Mr Corbyn also appeared to question the evidence that Moscow was behind the attack.

In the face of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Mr Corbyn has urged Western alliances to initiate talks with Putin in a bid to end the war.

"All wars end with a political solution. All wars end with dialogue," he said.

"Why don't we cut out the fighting zone, and go straight into the talking zone?