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Excellent newsletter Diane. Kasparov and Aslund are very wise men. They know exactly how to hobble Putin. The West must be steadfast in their support of Ukraine.

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You've hit not only the bull's eye with this one, Diane, but the eye's very center.

Thank you for your principled stance.

The world can not allow evil men and those who encourage, empower, implement, or otherwise support them to escape responsibility for their crimes. We have (thankfully) congealed in law (in Nuremburg) that crimes and atrocities by those who inflict great injury on the vulnerable and innocent in war will be found and prosecuted. Now it is time to look at the whole area of reparations to compensate for the losses that have been inflicted. The Ukrainian case should set a global precedent that whenever one nation inflicts unjustified and unprovoked injury on another, all those - including states, companies, and individuals who may have participated or benefited from that tragedy - will bear the cost of their transgressions.

A good place to start are all the frozen assets resulting from sanctions.

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Yes Diane. Merkel and Obama and Trump increased his power and his psychotic behavior. Germany needed to built more nuclear power stations not make itself dependent for energy supplies on a Russian dictator and a country run by dictators for centuries. To understand the nature of Putin suggest you read this article by psychologist and international media commentator Dr Arthur Cassidy https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/psychologist-putin-is-a-psychopath-and-loves-bloodshed-3606460 in the Belfast News Letter. Seems Putin has cancer and that might end his rule but his successor? A military victory best policy as you argue.

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right on diane ....putin is a classic psychopath....the ONLY way to deal with such a person is to show force and strength....appeasement wont work ....he would see this as a sign of weakness....

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