Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial power poses a grave threat to us all
■ Dr al Qutob is quite right to say that Boris Johnson’s comparison of Putin with Hitler (Irish Independent, Letters, March 24) was not only crass but an insult to millions of souls, principally Jews, but also Christian Democrats, Romanies and gays.
Johnson’s outbursts are so counter-productive and moronic that it defies reason why Theresa May allows him to comment at all, except that he is allowed latitude for the same reason that she gives billions of pounds to the six counties for the support of the DUP, to keep her morally bankrupt government in power.
However, what is lost in the good doctor’s letter is the observation of Putin’s dictatorial power and control of Russia’s media, army and intelligence services, in short, total control of Russia and Russian society. It is as though Putin has used George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ as his ‘Bible’.
Certainly, the Soviet Union and its citizens made huge sacrifices in World War II, with more than 25 million dead. These souls, and millions of others both before 1939 and after 1945, were the victims of Stalin’s betrayal of the principles of the Bolshevik revolution.
Putin does not need to send his opponents to gulags, his executioners dispose of them in the same way that Stalin’s executioners murdered Leon Trotsky. In contrast to Dr al Qutob, I would insist that Putin is most definitely a bloodthirsty tyrant and expansionist, and worse, is one who would, and does, sacrifice anyone and everyone in his sociopathic meanderings through the destruction of innocent people’s lives, and, frequently, their deaths.
Who, in her/his right mind, would want to be seen to emulate Joseph Stalin?
Harry Spillane