We are living in worrying and dangerous times. There seems to be far too many hotspots right now; Ukraine, North Korea, China, United States, Polish Belorussian border. And then the ever-growing advance of the far right. And then there is the menace of the Covid pandemic and the nonavailability of vaccines in there developing world.
Vladimir Putin has warned Nato countries that deploying weapons or soldiers to Ukraine would cross a “red line” for Russia and trigger a strong response, including a potential deployment of Russian missiles targeting Europe.
German Chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz would do the world a favour if, in agreement with EU leaders, he appointed outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel as a special envoy in an attempt to improve relations between Germany, the EU and Russia. Merkel and Putin can speak to one another in German and Russian. Merkel learned Russian in school in the former German Democratic Republic and Putin was a KGB boss in Dresden.
German Russian writer Natascha Wodin in her prizewinning book ‘She came from Mariupol’ gives some insights into the Russian mentality that we in Europe seem so often unable to understand.
This is from yesterday’s Guardian.
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