We must dig deep to beat Vladimir Putin, the Hitler of our age
A MAD, murderous dictator threatens to unleash a nuclear world war. No longer is this a mere movie plot. Today it is terrifyingly real.
It is paramount, as in 1939, that the free peoples of the West defeat this hideous new evil, this Hitler for our times.
Some Britons, justifiably jaded by foreign wars, want nothing to do with Ukraine. But it cannot be ignored and nor should it.
Vladimir Putin is inflicting his monstrous tyranny on an innocent population. And, if unrestrained, he will keep coming.
Decades of unpunished crimes and unchallenged power have addled his mind. Forget his ludicrous denials and lies — such as Russia being “threatened” by Nato, a defensive alliance, or that he is “de-Nazifying” Ukraine. The chilling reality is that he has publicly declared that a democratic country of 43million people has no right to exist.
With age now against him, he intends to go down in history as the man who, by force, folded Ukraine into Russia before establishing a new empire to replace the Soviet Union he still mourns.
We must put up with price rises
Putin will turn a deaf ear to the screams of children he orphans — and a blind eye to the cities he destroys and the thousands he slaughters, his own soldiers included. He believes this is his destiny. Only Western might, economic and military, will deny him.
Sanctions, our greatest weapon until he actually attacks a Nato member, have the power to cripple Russia. But they will hurt us too.
Food and fuel prices will rocket, inflicting further hardship on top of soaring inflation. That is a grim prospect which the Government can do more to alleviate. But we must endure it.
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Because for all our sakes, and those of our children and grandchildren, democracy must be defended to the end. It must prevail over the demented ambitions of evil men.
Most of us in the West are not currently blessed with great leaders and Putin knows it. The fractious, feeble, hand-wringing squabblers of the EU. America’s frail, doddering Joe Biden, pathetically intoning as the tanks rolled in that “Jill and I are praying for” Ukraine.
Boris Johnson, for all his other troubles, was commendably more forthright: “This hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure,” he said.
We should be thankful for that. And for the fact that if two elections had gone another way the Russian tyrant would have support in both Downing Street and the White House: The Nato-hating, Kremlin-backing Marxist Corbyn and the Putin fanboy Trump. Both typify the long, shameful denialism over the true menace from Russia and China, right across the political spectrum in Britain, America and the EU.
Nations desperate for Russian fuel and investment cosied up to this openly toxic and murderous regime.
Leaders even congratulated Putin on winning blatantly rigged elections.
Angela Merkel brainlessly closed Germany’s nuclear power stations and left her country mainly reliant on Russian gas and coal.
Repeated Putin invasions and outrages met with next to no response.
We expelled a few diplomats over the Salisbury poisonings, then continued to let Kremlin-linked criminal oligarchs launder billions in London, buy up the finest mansions and send their kids to our top schools.
This tolerance was even more putrid on the hard-Left.
Even yesterday, as Keir Starmer “addressed the nation” over the crisis, a rabble of his backbenchers were still blaming Nato for it. Starmer, let’s not forget, campaigned for them to run the country in 2019.
Russia is not, and was not, our friend. Nor China. Nor evidently is President Imran Khan of Pakistan — ex-cricket star, Taliban supporter and giddily excited visitor to Moscow as the invasion got under way.
How those English cricket pundits must wonder today about this legend of the game they still like and revere.
All of us in the West should have woken up years ago.
But if there was still any doubt about Putin his not-so-veiled threat to nuke countries standing in his way must end them for good. The man is deranged.
Yesterday’s fresh sanctions are welcome but still insufficient. There must be more and they must be brutal and immediate:
Expel every Russian ambassador. They merely lie for Putin. Shut down his propaganda channels.
They do too. Bar Russia from hosting or participating in every international sporting and cultural event. Sever all global sponsorship deals with Russian firms.
Greatest hope is Russian people
Lock them out of all international finance systems including SWIFT.
Round up scores more Kremlin-linked oligarchs, seize their London homes and deport them and their families.
Ban all Russian gas exports. “In each barrel there is Ukrainian blood,” as a Ukrainian MP said yesterday. To replace it, ramp up production in the North Sea and start fracking in the UK.
We must aim to bankrupt Moscow’s war machine while funding Ukraine forces so effectively that Putin’s troops quickly realise he has led them to their doom.
The Ukrainian resistance must have every weapon and intelligence capability we can supply.
Our vast aid budget must support refugees fleeing the war zone.
As for our own forces, let us hear no more about cuts. Reducing our fighting strength has been a tragic error of post-Cold War complacency.
We must increase it and be fully ready if Putin does somehow crush Ukraine and comes for a Nato state next.
Ultimately, perhaps our greatest hope is the Russian people.
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Many are already aghast at this atrocity carried out in their name on their neighbours. Hundreds are bravely rallying in the streets at huge risk.
Perhaps when Russia’s sons begin returning home in coffins, those protests will erupt into an irresistible revolt which ends the dark era of Putin and the grotesque lackeys who keep him in power.
