A wise man once said that when Russians look beyond their borders, they see only enemies or serfs.

I am reminded of this as Russia invades the Ukraine. Byelorussia, under its dictator Lukashenko, has played the role of serf, tamely allowing a Russian army of some 50,000 men to assemble on his turf.

This army is now heading for Kyiv, capital of the Ukraine, in the hope of converting the country from enemy to serf. Presumably Putin intends to set up a puppet regime in Kyiv.

And will Putin stop there? Not if he can help it. He once said that the fall of the Soviet Union was ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century’. By this I think he meant the greatest blow to Russian power in his lifetime.

I think he has hopes of taking the Baltic republics. With his troops in Byelorussia and the Ukraine he would surround the Baltics on every side. They are small territories with a population of only around eight million people between them.

The Russians could occupy the Baltics in a few days, whilst NATO would need weeks to bring meaningful numbers of soldiers into the region. Russia itself has been invaded many times, and has suffered much, so it is understandable that they are touchy about their security.

The tragedy is that they think that they can only be secure if they dominate their neighbours, rather than trading with them in peace.

David Martin, Rosedale Avenue, Acomb

 

We should do more to target wealthy oligarchs

The Government has made much of its sanctions against the Russian Government and some individual Russians, but imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has named 35 immensely wealthy Russian oligarchs who have close ties with and have supported and assisted Putin.

None were originally made the subject of sanctions by the UK, despite Boris Johnson mistakenly claiming in Parliament that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had been sanctioned, a claim he was forced to correct. 

Many of these oligarchs live in the UK. These people cannot easily be named publicly for fear of lawsuits, but Lib Dem MP Layla Moran used parliamentary privilege to name all 35 of them.

Though the Government are now in no doubt who these people are, they have subsequently only sanctioned two of them.

Given the flow of more than £2m of Russian money into the coffers of the Conservative party and the close links to Russia of senior Tories like Jacob Rees-Mogg, whose company, it has been widely reported, has substantial investments in a Russian gas company, this may not be surprising.

Since military action against Russia is clearly not feasible to deter them from their illegal invasion of Ukraine, sanctions must hit Putin and his cronies hard. It seems that the interests of the Conservative Party and senior Conservatives are hampering their effectiveness.
Tony Fisher,
Liberal Democrat councillor for Strensall ward,
West End, Strensall

 

Putin is the the new ‘mad monk’

I can only think of one other ‘Putin’ from my extremely limited knowledge of Russian history. That was ‘Ras Putin’. It didn’t end well for him. How well, or otherwise, will it end for Vladimir and, more importantly, for the Ukrainian and Russian peoples?

Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York

 

Now is not the time to mock NATO
Following his comments about Covid, Matthew Laverack now treats a major threat to world peace with an appalling lack of concern for what is happening with his mocking of NATO (Letters, February 25). 

He may have visited Russia four times but has clearly not understood that Putin is losing the support of many Russians for his messianic actions and ruthless suppression of any criticism of his regime. 

I am sure most of us are worried about the decisions the West make in response to the invasion of Ukraine. But the use of mockery at this time is totally inappropriate and not funny.
Jim Welsman,
Stamford Bridge