Real victim in the Salisbury poisoning drama is Putin
Re: “Have Your Say sleuth should join UK’s MI5!”, Have Your Say, September 12.
Barry, thank you for recommending that I should join M15. Unfortunately however, like 007, I have already reached the agency’s mandatory retirement age.
This week Vladimir Putin told reporters that the Russian government had identified the two alleged suspects and, believe it or not, that they are ordinary Russian citizens.
So far the only hard evidence that connects the two suspects to the murder case is the hotel room where they stayed, where police say traces of novichok were found. If this is the case, UK police should have alerted the public and isolated that particular hotel for caution and inspection, something that has not been done or reported.
That said, my criticisms so far are not meant to defend the two Russians, who may or may not be the culprits, but just to point out that it is unfair to jump to any conclusion and demonise Vladimir Putin and the Russians when there is no sound reason or proof.
In interviews and even the documentary made by Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, the Russian president appears to be a leader who is calm, decisive, reasonable and knowledgeable.
Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian writer and Nobel laureate, said in an interview in Sweden 2016: “In the West, people demonise Putin, they do not understand that there is a collective Putin, consisting of some millions of people who do not want to be humiliated by the West. There is a little piece of Putin in everyone.”
Yingwai Suchaovanich
