Mr. Putin, the empire building concept is over

Dear Editor:

For the past month, we have been reading in the newspapers and hearing the news on TV that Russia has over 150,000 troops and numerous tanks ready to invade Ukraine at their border by the city Kharkiv.

President Vadimir Putin is portrayed as a war mongrel; it is in his blood to start a war whenever he pleases. Since the overthrow of the Russian Czar over 90 years ago, by the Bolsheviks and Joesph Stalin, Communism was not successful, and the USSR fell apart in the early 90s. However, the Republic of Russia was formed. President Putin continues to rule Russia with the help of 1,000 cronies from his parliament and voted himself in as President of the Republic of Russia for life. He still has the same principles when he was in the KGB and the communist party. His closest allies are China and North Korea. The cold war still exists with the west.

When President Putin invaded Crimea in 2014, he also helped the pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk, Donetsk, and Sloviansk regions of eastern Ukraine. This is the area he plans to invade and cause havoc to the Ukrainian people who still live there. My suggestion is that President Putin evacuate all the pro-Russians from these areas and send them back to Russia. We heard in the news that the Russian people are not in favour of a war between them and Ukraine. There are a lot of poor people there and what little money they get from old age pension and selling their garden vegetables is not sufficient to live on. Crimea was given as a gift to Ukraine by the late President Khrushchev; now President Putin wants it back. There is no opposition party in Russia, the ones who tried to oppose the government were either poisoned, sent to prison, or outright killed.

Ukraine should receive an apology from President Putin for crimes committed by Joseph Stalin when he starved 3.9 million Ukrainians during the famine in Ukraine in 1932-33. He took all the grain for his own benefit; to survive some people ate frozen potatoes.

I believe the UN should allow Ukraine to become a member of NATO for this would solve most of their problems. Let this be a lesson for President Putin, to love his neighbour.

Paul Jones, Coaldale

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