Johnson issues open invitation to Russian scientists ‘dismayed by Putin’s violence’

Boris Johnson said at the G7 summit that Russian scientists ‘should feel free to apply to come to the UK and work in a country that values openness and the pursuit of knowledge’. Photograph: UK Pool

Boris Johnson has issued an open invitation for disaffected Russian scientists to defect to the UK, as he used the G7 summit to argue that allowing Russia to prevail in Ukraine would usher in a highly damaging era of global instability.

As part of an expansion to a twinning system with Ukrainian universities, allowing Ukrainian academics to continue their research at UK institutions, Johnson said this offer extended to their Russian counterparts.