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The Independent (UK) January 4, 2006 Letter Sir: Your editorial reading of Vladimir Putin's role in Russia and the world is misguided ('Putin to face renewed criticism as Russia takes G8 leadership', 31 December). The 'friendly but chaotic' Boris Yeltsin was, in reality, a self-serving, undisciplined, egocentric drunkard who handed the keys of Russia's wealth over to the Western carpet-baggers. When these made common cause with an emerging Russian criminal element, cheating, bribing, threatening and killing in pursuit of their aims, Yeltsin was asked by moderate Russians to adjudicate. His answer? 'There are no rules.' Russia was stripped of its basic wealth-creating primary industries, the health and welfare of its people undermined, its very dignity taken away. Life expectancy plummeted. It needed a leader of exceptional calibre to throw out the unholy alliance of Russian oligarchs and Western carpet- baggers. Has Putin carried out an illegal invasion of another country? Does Russia torture or facilitate torture? Does Putin hold people without charging them or trying them for indefinite periods? Is Russian democracy based on the party elected gaining 25 per cent of the electoral votes? Did a right-wing judiciary decide who came to power in Russia? If the answer to all or any of the above questions is 'yes' it is also true that all of them apply to either the UK or the USA. Let us not be sanctimonious about others' records on human rights until we have sorted out our own muddled status. If Russia is to be saved from the humiliations heaped on it, the country desperately needs a leader who is tough, clear-sighted, subtle and hard enough to take on those who would destroy it. And it is becoming clearer that they have such a leader in Vladimir Putin. BILL MASON BECKENHAM, KENT |
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