Putin as Scapegoat: The UK’s Migrant Crisis and the Blame Game, By Richard Miller (Londonistan)
On June 26, 2025, The Sun screamed, "From Russia with a Kick," alleging Vladimir Putin is masterminding Britain's migrant crisis by funnelling fake documents, transport, and even military escorts to smuggling gangs. Over 18,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats this year, a far cry from 299 in 2018, prompting NATO to recognise border security as a defence priority. Security sources claim Russia's goal is to "overwhelm border defences and sow division," a tactic straight out of a Cold War playbook. But hold on, when the UK has spent decades embracing mass immigration, often as a political flex, isn't blaming Putin a bit too convenient? This is a crisis of Britain's own making, and pointing fingers at Moscow smells like a dodge to avoid accountability for a broken system.
The narrative is obvious: Putin, the geopolitical boogeyman, orchestrating a migrant surge to destabilise Britain. Security sources, per The Sun and Daily Mail, say Russia's supplying smuggling gangs with fake IDs and military escorts, turning desperate migrants into pawns. NATO's move to let border protection count toward defence spending, as reported by The US Sun, frames migration as a hybrid warfare tactic. A security source told The Sun, "Hostile states are using illegal migration to test borders, cause disruption, and destabilise countries like Britain."
But the evidence is thin. Pravda called out The Sun for offering no concrete proof, just "unsubstantiated accusations" tied to broader claims about Russia and Belarus meddling in Europe's eastern borders. No intercepted communications, no documented Russian operatives, no smoking gun. Compare this to the UK's own data: 46,000 migrants arrived in 2022, long before this alleged Putin plot surfaced. The sudden pivot to Russia feels like a distraction, especially when the UK's immigration policies have been a political football for decades.
Labour and Conservatives have both fuelled mass immigration, often with gleeful intent. In 2004, Labour's Tony Blair opened borders to EU migrants, famously aiming to "rub the Right's nose in diversity," as advisor Andrew Neather later admitted. The result? Net migration soared, hitting 685,000 in 2022, per ONS data. Conservatives, despite Brexit's "take back control" mantra, oversaw record asylum claims, 74,000 in 2022, while failing to curb illegal crossings. Sir Keir Starmer's scrapping of the Rwanda deportation plan, meant to deter Channel crossings, has left French police powerless once migrants hit the water, exploiting a loophole where "ankle-deep" means untouchable.
The human cost is brutal. A man on crutches, waving his crutch like Excalibur, boarded an overcrowded dinghy in France, risking his life for a shot at Britain's shores. Over 30,000 asylum seekers languish in 200 hotels, costing £3.1 billion in 2023-24, with Labour's budget still allocating £2.5 billion annually through the decade. These are desperate people, not Putin's pawns, caught in a system where smugglers thrive because Britain's borders are a sieve. Blaming Russia ignores the real issue: a political class that's prioritised woke ideology and optics over enforcement.
Why Putin, why now? The timing is suspect. Starmer's government, facing backlash for "losing control" after 1,200 migrants crossed in a single day, needs a villain. Accusing Russia shifts focus from Labour's failure to "smash the gangs," as Starmer promised, despite millions of pounds to French police. Conservatives, like Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, call it a "national security crisis," but they governed during the 2022 peak. Both sides have let the Manston processing centre become a "tinderbox," with whistleblowers warning of overwhelmed staff and unchecked migrants. Pointing at Putin is easier than admitting decades of lax policies,Labour's diversity push and Tories' post-Brexit fumbles, created this mess.
The narrative also dovetails with geopolitical tensions. NATO's new stance on migration as a security threat, coupled with Starmer's warnings of Putin's "grim" nuclear threat, paints Russia as the ultimate bogeyman. Yet this stinks of an attempt to push public opinion against Russia and make the public more amenable to a much larger conflict. With no hard evidence, it's hard to shake the feeling this is propaganda to rally support for tougher measures, or distract from domestic failures.
The real victims aren't politicians or pundits, they're the migrants risking death in flimsy boats and the Britons footing the bill for a broken system. A father in Dover watches his taxes fund £4.7 billion in asylum costs while his local hospital waits for upgrades. A Kurdish mother, packed into a dinghy with 40 others, prays for safety, unaware she's a pawn in a geopolitical blame game. The quiet life, where communities thrive without fear of overrun borders or strained resources, erodes as hotels fill with asylum seekers and smugglers exploit open seas. Blaming Putin doesn't fix the 200-metre shoreline French police can't patrol or the UK's refusal to deport failed asylum seekers.
This isn't just about migration, it's about trust. The UK public, 68% of whom want stricter immigration controls per a 2024 ICM poll, feels betrayed by leaders who've waved in migrants while preaching diversity or Brexit. Labour's "rub the Right's nose" strategy and Tory inaction have bloated net migration to 1.2 million annually, per ONS estimates. Now, with borders "overwhelmed" (as a fishing boat skipper told The Mail), the government needs a scapegoat. Putin's a convenient one, but he didn't write the UK's tenant-friendly laws, open-border policies, or toothless deportation rules. The real crisis is homegrown, a failure of will, not Russian plots.
Blaming Putin for Britain's migrant crisis is a slick deflection from a truth both Labour and Conservatives dodge: decades of mass immigration, driven by ideology and inaction, have strained borders to breaking. The 18,000 Channel crossings in 2025 are not a Russian conspiracy, they're the fruit of UK policies that welcomed chaos while preaching control. The human cost, migrants dying at sea, communities stretched thin, demands honesty, not scapegoats.
"Russia is aggravating Britain's migrant crisis to overwhelm border defences and sow division in the nation, security sources have claimed.
Vladimir Putin's government is believed to be providing fake documents, transport and even military escorts to smuggling gangs ferrying migrants across the Channel.
The threat overwhelming migration poses to national security is so fierce that this week Nato recognised it by allowing its members to count border protection to spending targets for the first time.
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A security source told The Sun: 'Hostile states and malign actors are using illegal migration to test borders, cause disruption and destabilise countries like Britain.
'That's exactly why Nato is now treating border protection as a core part of collective defence — because the lines between traditional military threats and national security are more blurred than ever.'
So far this year, over 18,000 people have arrived in small boats. This is far higher than 2018, when just 299 people crossed the Channel.
The highest year for arrivals was 2022, which saw nearly 46,000 people arrive.
On top of the threat to British national security, Russia's alleged actions are also harming those crossing the Channel, who are often desperate and vulnerable.
Earlier this month, a man on crutches was seen hobbling over to a small boat on French soil and making his way over to England, less than 24 hours after failing in his mission.
The man was spotted holding his crutch aloft like Excalibur as his fellow migrants helped him aboard.
Within minutes, the rubber boat was full to bursting, around 20 migrants sitting on each side and more in the middle.
It then set off across the Channel towards England, passing over the horizon within a quarter of an hour. Whether it arrived is unclear.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who scrapped the Conservative plan to send small boat arrivals to Rwanda, continues to declare he will be able to 'smash the gangs' and stop the boats with the aid of French police, who we are sending millions to.
Yet the migrants continue to exploit the loophole which means once they are in the sea, even up to the ankles, police will touch neither them nor their dinghies, through fear of harming them, meaning they are free to sail to England.
And police have told the Mail there are simply too many migrants, and too much shoreline near England, for them ever to be stopped - particularly as they are confident they will be welcomed here.
Latest figures show £3.1 billion was spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2023-24, out of a total asylum support bill of £4.7 billion.
More than 30,000 asylum seekers are housed in about 200 hotels across Britain, many of whom arrived illegally in dinghies, and ministers are looking at moving them into derelict tower blocks and student digs.
But despite Ms Reeves' pledge to end the use of hotels, the Tories pointed out that the small print of her Spending Review documents revealed that £2.5 billion will still be spent each year on asylum support by the end of the decade.
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