Tony Benn always maintained that Russia had suffered such heavy losses in WW2 that the last thing they wanted was another war. I can't remember when TB died, but possibly Putin hadn't ascended into the Hitler of the 21st century beforehand. Putin's ruthlessness has been evident for a long while lets not forget what he did to Alexander Litvinenko in London for criticising what he saw as corruption within the Russian government. Then in the pursuit of the failed attempt to take out the Skripals he unleashed a chemical weapon on the streets of Salisbury, killing one British citizen leaving several others with life changing conditions, making that city a no go area in the aftermath. All of this of course he denies. Tony Benn in his attempt to reassure the people of this country that Russia having lost millions in the second world war, is now as benign as any of our allies, Although suffer as they did in the enormous loss of life in combat that can't be compared to consciously annihilating a whole race of people in the way the Nazis did.
In any event the Red Army hardly covered itself in glory when it swept through defeated Germany raping and pillaging innocent civilians as an act of revenge. in the immediate aftermath of the end of the war.
Turning back to Tony Been he couldn't possibly see how the landscape was to unfold in time under a ruthless dictator. who has been increasingly flexing his muscles in threatening to take over independent countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
For anyone who moans and groans about the cost of our royal family particularly in not handing over the palaces they live in to everyman to share, this from Camilla Long in yesterday's Times "Look at Putin's summer palace on The Black Sea, you will see what his regime is made of, disgusting furniture and greed, it lies on an estate 39 times the size of Monaco and contains a myriad of rooms, a strip club, a petrol station, plus bogs where the lavatory brushes alone cost $1,500". The man has a personal wealth of billions which he doesn't share with his fellow citizens either. Did they ever? since the inception of communism the lives of the ordinary people did not improve , in fact how many millions of them starved to death in the time of Stalin's "Collectivisation programme" that went well!.
Russia seemed to have had a brief hiatus when they had decent leader in Gorbachev. Right now one has to feel sorry for the average Russian who have been bravely demonstrating against the proposed takeover of Ukraine at pains to show this isn't done in their name and risk being arrested for treason and facing a frightening fate for doing so. We also have to feel sorry for the young Russian soldiers deployed because clearly they are just cannon fodder.
Putin is a prime example of absolute power corrupts!
