Deeds Not Words.

This is nothing to do with the suffragettes. This is to do with Mr Putin’s address to the Russian people in which he said that the war in Ukraine is a tragedy for both nations, that he still regards the people of Ukraine as ‘brothers’, and that fault for the issue lies not with him but with western expansionism.

Well, there is a grain of reason to be seen here. Even we on this side of the divide recognise that western culture, and in particular its economic practices, are far from flawless. And so it’s understandable that Russians would not want to be sucked too far into it.

But does that justify becoming a mass murderer, as Putin has done? Does it justify armed assault on another sovereign country? Does it justify cruelly denying innocent civilians access to heat and light during the cold winter season? They’re the real questions.

And so unless Mr Putin has an extremely low level of intelligence, even he must realise that his words are not what he is being judged by, but his actions. Words uttered by a consummate tyrannical politician should never be taken seriously anyway; it’s the deeds which count.

But maybe we should be wondering whether there is something else behind all this, something which neither the Russian nor western public are being told. Because if there isn’t, the Russian invasion of Ukraine makes very little sense whatever Mr Putin says.