© Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesUkip leader, Nigel Farage, said Vladimir Putin was doing a better job on foreign policy than David Cameron or William Hague.
Nigel Farage has repeated his admiration for Vladimir Putin, saying he respects him more than the "kids" who run Britain, as Nick Clegg condemned support for the Russian president as "utterly grotesque".
The Ukip leader said he did not like or trust Putin, or want to live in Russia, but he was doing a better job on foreign policy than David Cameron and the foreign secretary, William Hague.
A number of politicians have expressed surprise about Farage's comments in an interview with GQ magazine, in which the Ukip leader said Putin was the world leader he most admired as an "operator".
"The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?" he said.
Asked about Farage's comments, Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said: "I just think it is utterly grotesque that Nigel Farage apparently admires - and that was the question to him: 'Who do you admire?' - admires someone, Vladimir Putin, who has been the chief sponsor and protector of one of the most brutal dictators on the face of the planet, President Assad [of Syria], who has blocked at every single turn in the United Nations any attempt by the international community to work in concert to help the many, many millions of people who have been driven from their homes and have been brutalised, and have been tortured and have been killed.
Comment: There's an online documentary about Ukraine's fascist movement, beginning here. Clearly, the only way they could be sustained and organized down through the decades to the present day - without ever doing an honest day's work by the looks of things - is with American 'democratization' funding.