Putin the destabiliser

SIR – Vladimir Putin’s laughable media response while he was in China to the barbaric chemical attack on British soil by GRU agents (positively identified by CCTV and confirmed by international intelligence reports) displays a new dimension in Stalinesque hubris.

Meanwhile, the costs of his current military exercises in the East dwarf the Russian state pension deficit, which has recently caused consternation among the general population in Russia – where life expectancy mirrors that of western Europe 50 years ago.

While in Britain we are preoccupied with Brexit, when will Nato as a whole realise this man’s crony regime is the biggest threat to world stability that we have seen in over two generations?

John Stimpson Tattenhall, Cheshire