I have no illusions about Russia, but the sanctions must stop

‘Chancellor Merkel – rightly representing her country’s business interests – has … invested a huge amount of time in trying to build a personal relationship with Vladimir Putin.’ wrote:

Not being on speaking terms – let alone trading terms – with a country as influential as Russia is not practical in a world crying out for global co-operation.

As the only British MP to have been born in a Communist-occupied country, I have no illusions about the Russian bear. In the spring of 1983, when I first returned to Poland after the lifting of martial law, it broke my heart to see the country I loved struggling to survive under the Soviet-imposed regime. Everything was rationed, including petrol, meat and sugar. It was a life of almost interminable queuing, appalling indignities for the elderly and vulnerable and, for members of the generation growing into maturity during that period, little hope of ever achieving their dreams.

Late at night, behind locked doors in my grandfather’s house, I recall listening with him to the BBC World Service – a station that it was illegal ever to tune in to under the oppressive regime of General Wojciech Jaruzelski. All of this misery for an entire nation because the old guard at the Kremlin had decreed that there had to be a series of buffer states between themselves and the west.

I remember how moved I had been when my classmates at school in England had clubbed together to send food parcels to Poland, but how I wished, too, it hadn’t been necessary. If only more could have been done after the war to save the central and eastern European countries from this disastrous occupation. A more hardline approach then could have improved the lot of millions of people.

For all that, I believe we might now be antagonising the Russian bear too much. These are words I could never have imagined writing in my wildest dreams as a young man. This month, however, I have submitted a written question in the Commons asking for an estimate of the lost revenue to the UK from the sanctions we have imposed against Russia both in terms of lost foreign direct investment and a loss of British exports....................

To read further go to this link: theguardian.com

Thanks Europe!

Scum of the earth European leaders showing what's more important to them. Money's more important than another European country that's crying out for help.

I hope to hell that they get bit by an attack from the scum they want to do business with and that this scumbag is on its cross-hairs, so he can be blown all over the European map.

The US and Canada have done MUCH MORE than sorry Europe has done for Ukraine, but of course, there are many that are complaining of what the US isn't doing. European's are so sorry and scared that they can't call out their own leaders, but instead call out countries that don't have a direct link to Ukraine. Europeans should be ashamed at their country's leaders and their choice of leaders THEY CHOSE. Who else voted them into office? It wasn't US voters. And they don't have the balls to put pressure on their leaders. More or less, all they want to do is use this conflict to use the US as a bean bag for debate's sake, knowing who they should be pressuring.

Maybe Ukraine should become the next US state, then they don't have any excuses, as Europe is dis-owning Ukraine. But Europeans don't see it that way as if Ukraine was a US state. An additional good excuse to bash the US again. Sorry weaklings.

SHAME!!!