Western leaders will attend a crunch summit even if Vladimir Putin went because they would not want the Russian President and his Chinese counterpart to plot alone, Boris Johnson has revealed.
Kremlin despot Putin has been invited to the G20 in Bali in November - throwing up dilemmas for governments outraged by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
No10 has refused to rule out boycotting the Indonesian gathering, or staging a mass walkout if Putin addressed the conference.
Asked about how he might react, the PM said: “The question is do we as the Western countries vacate our seats at the G20, and leave the whole argument to China, to Russia?”
He added: “If you vacate something like the G20 you risk just handing the propaganda opportunity to others.”
He doubted whether outcast Putin, who has not left Russia since before the coronavirus pandemic struck, would even take up the invitation.
“I would be absolutely amazed if Putin goes in person, I think that he is a pariah figure,” said Mr Johnson.
“He hasn’t been outside Russia for more than two years.
“I think he’s highly unlikely to go for all sorts of reasons.
“Yes he’s been formally invited; I don’t think he will go.”
However, hours after the PM spoke, Putin flew to Tajikistan for talks in his first trip outside Russia for more than two years.
He is due to jet to Turkmenistan for a central Asia conference later this week.
Mr Johnson was speaking aboard his Airbus A321 as he flew from a G7 Summit in Germany to a NATO Summit in Madrid.
He revealed G7 leaders had wrestled with how to convince “swing voters” about the need to back Ukraine.
“Much of the conversation at the G7 has been about, ‘Are we doing enough to win over the swing voters?’,” said the PM.
“What can we do with the mill of the congregation, the people who look at Ukraine and who have mixed feelings?
“We need to be doing more to win them over, we need to be making our case.”
Meanwhile Boris Johnson announced Britain will pump £5million into bolstering Georgia’s cyber defences to foil future attacks from Russia.
Speaking at the NATO Summit in Madrid, the Prime Minister pledged the cash to boost Tbilisi's protections against Kremlin web assaults ordered by Moscow tyrant Vladimir Putin.
He said: “The people of Georgia live every day on the frontline of Russian aggression.
“Putin cannot be allowed to use Georgia’s sovereign institutions to sharpen the knife of his cyber capability.
“The UK has world-leading cyber prowess and the support announced today will protect not just Georgia, but also the UK and all other free democracies threatened by Russian hostility.”
Russia has previously waged cyber attacks against its neighbour to test new technologies.
In 2008, some of the world’s first coordinated web attacks crippled the country’s security architecture while Russia carried out its illegal annexation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
In October 2019 Georgia, alongside with allies’ agencies including Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre, identified a huge cyber attack carried out against Georgia by Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency.
The attack hammered a series of Georgian web hosting providers and led to websites being hacked, including pages belonging to Georgia’s government, courts, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media and businesses.
The cyber assault also interfered with national broadcasters’ output.
No10 said the new funds “will allow the Georgian National Security Council to deliver their new cyber security strategy – identifying and repelling attacks from those seeking to undermine both Georgian and European security”.
It added: “The UK will also work directly with the Georgian Ministry of Defence to bolster their cyber defences and capability.”
Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili is due to address the summit.
