IN their enthusiasm to contradict what JC of Fife wrote on the Ukraine crisis, both Nick Cole and James Duncan have made a number of errors (Letters, Feb 21). Mr Duncan even goes so far as to say JC’s letter could have been written by Putin, cheerfully unaware that some of what he wrote indicates he has swallowed whole the propaganda from both the USA and the UK.

Nato was founded in April 1949 and began as a defensive alliance because of concern at the way the USSR had set up communist regimes in eastern Europe. The Warsaw Pact came into existence in May 1955 as a consequence of West Germany being admitted into Nato. The Russians were understandably nervous, having been invaded by German forces relatively recently and having suffered terribly as a consequence.

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Mr Cole is quite wrong to say Nato has not aggressively expanded and not invaded other countries. In 2002 Nato was encouraging eastern European countries to join, in contradiction of the deal done between Gorbachev and Reagan that it would not expand into eastern Europe. The Baltic republics joined in 2004, as did Bulgaria. While it is easy for us to defend these choices, we also need to understand why the Russians saw it very differently. Russia has never invaded western Europe but has been invaded by Britain, France and Germany, more than once by the first two, so they have historical reasons to be nervous. Mr Cole should try telling the Afghans that Nato has never invaded other countries.

I am not aware of anyone having said that Nato plans to invade Russia, Mr Duncan, but, apart from the French and Germans, they can hardly be said to be heeding Russia’s concern for its security and be genuinely looking for a diplomatic solution. The tough talk about punitive sanctions from Johnson sounds distinctly hollow when the Londongrad Laundromat and the Tory party do so handsomely out of the Russian oligarchs they have catered for so generously. Also, Mr Duncan, Russian agents did not murder a British citizen in Salisbury.

None of this should be taken as an apology for Putin and Russia’s troop build-up. It is simply an attempt to understand the background to this crisis and to remind folk that the West is not simply the good guy in the white hat as some clearly believe.

Andrew M Fraser
Inverness

I SEE that the excellent letter on Friday by JC of Fife has spawned a sadly predictable Russo-phobic response. It really doesn’t take much effort to discover what is really going on in Ukraine.

Ever since 2014, the secessionist republics (largely ethnic Russian) of the Donbass in eastern Ukraine have been threatened and attacked by the Ukrainian military (which includes neo-Nazi militias) – contrary to a binding agreement of the UN Security Council. Washington is desperate for the Ukrainian military to continue and step up the attack on the Donbass, hoping and expecting that if enough ethnic Russians are in immediate danger of being massacred, then the Russians will themselves step in. At that point, the US/UK will lead the West in condemning this Russian “aggression”. Result – more sanctions, no cheap gas through Nord Stream 2, expensive gas from the US, and the further subservience of Europe to the United States.

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The is something the US has been pushing since they backed the coup in Ukraine in early 2014. What we’re seeing here is a declining US struggling to maintain its hegemony by preventing closer relations between Europe and Russia/China. Fortunately, Nato itself is divided, and some European leaders can see the potential massive danger to their economies, though whether such weak leaders can influence matters must be a real question; but there is hope, especially given the patience and restraint of President Putin.

Readers of The National, I assume, are in favour of Scottish independence, and are surely aware of the appalling bias in the treatment of that topic in the mainstream press. Why then, are so many ready to believe that same media when it comes to foreign affairs, especially when it concerns nations that the establishment regard as hostile, when the imperialist agenda is so obvious?

Gordon Gallacher
Strathpeffer

THE gross mis-representation of my letter from Nick Cole and James Duncan in the Monday edition has compelled me to respond. First of all, contrary to the implication in their letters, I’m no Putin supporter. The fact that he is authoritarian and thuggish I have no doubt. Rather, my letter aims to deliver a different angle to the crisis rather than the pro-US/UK narrative that is given verbatim through a narrow media lens.

There is enough in my letter for those who want to explore this topic further to research key events that allow people to arrive at a different position and to critically question the jingoistic rhetoric we so often hear. To infer that “I need to open my eyes” is Orwellian. It is the fact that I have opened my eyes and have read widely that I was able to pen such a letter in the first place.

If Cole and Duncan were to open their eyes, then they too perhaps would think differently. Take just one example; Duncan states I failed to mention Putin’s “dictator” characteristics in persecuting journalists, but it was instructive and selective of him not mention the persecution and torture of Julian Assange by the US and UK, on UK soil no less! As for other aspects of mis-representation of my letter by both contributors and factual/historical inaccuracies peppered throughout, I’ll leave it to others to judge.

JC
Fife