David Ball: Poor Russia — Putin only wants what’s his

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears before the media after the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Nov. 28, 2024.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears before the media after the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Nov. 28, 2024. MIKHAIL TERESHCHENKO/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL PHOTO VIA AP

In this photo taken from video released by Kremlin Press service on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a recording of his annual televised New Year's message on New Year's eve in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

In this photo taken from video released by Kremlin Press service on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a recording of his annual televised New Year's message on New Year's eve in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Published: 01-06-2025 10:39 PM

Poor Russia! All it did was invade Ukraine with no pretext whatsoever (sorry, Vladimir Putin, that lover of democracy, wanted to ”denazify” it) and now, according to John Berkowitz’s Jan. 2 guest column [“Negotiate Ukraine peace now, not risk nuclear war with Russia”], it faces the threat of “continued escalation on the part of the U.S. and NATO.”

Repent, and de-escalate! European countries and the U.S. should let the Ukrainians become good Russian citizens. Anyway, they’re tired of this war, Berkowitz writes. All we’ve read about their ferocious, continued resistance under great odds must be a myth. After all, the Russians took close to 20,000 Ukrainian children to Russia, and I’m sure they’re very happy in that free, well-run country, forgetting the Ukrainian language as fast as possible.

The columns advocating this in the Gazette offer a lesson for the future, too. The next time Putin wants to annex another country, let him! Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were recently part of Russia, so why not now? And Poland was once part of the Russian Empire. All Putin is doing is reclaiming what is rightfully his, and denazifying it, too. Leave him alone, or we’ll have nuclear war! And the same goes for China reclaiming Taiwan, and North Korea when it reclaims South Korea: China and North Korea have nukes.

President Trump is right: Let his friend Putin “do whatever the hell he wants,” and everything will be great!

David Ball

Northampton