On Russia, Trump and Putin

James Burke writes: Re. “Razer: ‘progressive’ journos gunning for Trump are a danger to peace” (Thursday)

I’m glad Helen Razer’s reading Masha Gessen. She might provide a little more insight into Putin’s Russia than Oliver Stone movies. But Razer is still oddly defensive about dear old Vlad, to the point that her column on recent US-Russian relations was missing the words “Georgia”, “Ukraine” and “Crimea”.

Putin’s not Hitler. But he did invade a neighbouring country and annex its territory, which hasn’t been done a lot since the ‘40s. “Lefties for Putin” have laboured to justify this, as with John Pilger asserting that the Ukrainians are basically Nazis, so the Russians are anti-fascist heroes.  That argument’s somewhat undermined by Putin’s support for European neo-fascists. Cry “fake news” all you like, but Putin’s 2017 love-in with Marine Le Pen was well-documented, lovingly photographed and heavily promoted.