If Europe Cowers In Face Of Putin We Will Deserve All We'll Get

THIS Saturday will mark the second anniversary invasion of of Russia's Ukraine one of the darkest days Europe has seen since 1945.

- Stephen Pollard

It is grimly appropriate that Navalny, Vladimir nemesis, or, let's be within Alexei Putin's would-be should have died realistic, been killed days of that anniversary.

Navalny understood the true nature of the Putin regime: thuggish, corrupt and brutal, and built on lies - words which also apply to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

History shows us that dictators only understand one language: force. The opposite of that is no less true, that weakness also tells a story.

when So Putin invaded Crimea in 2014 and the West's response was just a few harsh words, he concluded that the West was fundamentally spineless - a logical conclusion, too, from our refusal to respond seriously to Russia's actions in Syria and our capitulation to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

That led him to think in 2022 that he would be able to waltz into Ukraine and march straight to the capital, Kyiv. But not only did the Ukrainians refuse to lie down before the mighty Russian army. The West, for once, also showed some resolve.

A war in Europe, against a nation which had realistic expectations of joining both Nato and the EU, was enough to make even the most pusillanimous of Western leaders realise that we had to make a stand.