My response to the open letter on Russia drafted by David Miller and Piers Robinson.

My response to the open letter on Russia drafted by David Miller and Piers Robinson.

Dear David and Piers,

I would not sign this letter.

My attitude to the present Russian regime, a reactionary authoritarian regime on a par with those of Erdogan and Trump, mirrors that of Karl Marx to the Russian Empire, which he characterised as “the gendarme of Europe”. In 1856 he wrote: “ It is in the terrible and abject school of Mongolian slavery that Muscovy was nursed and grew up. It gathered strength only by becoming a virtuoso in the craft of serfdom. Even when emancipated, Muscovy continued to perform its traditional part of the slave as master. At length Peter the Great coupled the political craft of the Mongol slave with the proud aspiration of the Mongol master, to whom Genghis Khan had, by will, bequeathed his conquest of the earth.” Putin, a true heir to the Russian Tsars, whom Marx detested, regards Lenin not only as a German spy but as the spy who destroyed the Russian Empire, and placed an atomic bomb under the USSR leading to its collapse, the greatest tragedy in his view of the 20th century – which is why there was no 1917 commemoration in Russia last year.

Amongst other things I represent at Strasbourg the widow, Marina, of Aleksandr Litvinenko who was murdered with Pollonium radioactive material in 2006 by Russians, one of whom is now a member of the Russian Duma, with consequent immunity. Mrs May has form. As Home Secretary, she blocked a public inquiry into the murder, and Marina only secured an inquiry by going to the Court of Appeal against May’s decision. The Russian regime has ridiculed May’s threats – Russia will not be visited by the Royal family! – and the Kremlin says this morning that the UK’s reaction added at least 10% to Putin’s vote yesterday. Boris Johnson could not avoid yesterday on Marr the fact the Tory Party has received huge sums of money from Russians close to the Kremlin. And a star of British capital, BP, owns 20% of the Russian state oil company Rosneft, making huge profits. The Russian regime does not fear the UK. On the contrary, it laughs at the posturing of May, Johnson and the others.

My colleagues the lawyer Stanislav Markelov, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the human rights activist Natasha Estemirova, and the leading opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, were all murdered in circumstances where operatives have been sentenced, but those who ordered the murders have impunity, with very strong suspicion focused on the Kremlin. The regime is now rounding up and torturing anarchists and anti-fascists. See https://freedomnews.org.uk/russia-arrests-and-torture-of-a…/, https://en.crimerussia.com/…/sevastopol-anarchist-who-expo…/, https://avtonom.org/…/…/call-soli-actions-russian-anarchists.

The Russian regime is also complicit in Turkey’s crimes against Afrin and the Kurdish resistance. Russia had troops in Afrin and was providing air cover. The week before Turkey’s attack, senior Turkish officials visited Moscow and spoke with Mr Shoigu, the Russian Minister of Defence. Russian forces withdrew, and the Russian regime gave a green light to Turkey. See http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/afrin-218798501, https://www.aljazeera.com/…/russia-helping-turkey-afrin-180…, https://www.aljazeera.com/…/russia-green-light-turkeys-afri…, https://anfenglish.com/…/sipan-hemo-russia-betrayed-the-kur…. Putin and Erdogan have Kurdish blood on their hands.

Another six years of President Putin is a much greater threat to world peace than the antics of May and Johnson.

Kind regards,

Bill