West ill-informed over Crimea

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/26/west-ill-informed-crimea

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You write that "the international community" does not like the annexation of Crimea (Editorial, 22 March). In the absence of an international poll to this effect, I can only assume that by "international community" you actually mean Nato leaders. Most ordinary people I speak to are at the very least intrigued by our media's unquestioning recognition of a leadership in Ukraine that did not win the last election and that prominently includes several open neofascists. 

They are also aware that the measures which the former Ukrainian opposition is introducing have no electoral mandate but fit perfectly with what the US state department wants. And that the annexation would probably not have occurred had those same Nato country leaders honoured the EU-brokered compromise agreement of 21 February and recognised a unity government rather than the opposition. So many questions, yet the only question for the Guardian appears to be how to be even tougher than "the international community" is in its aggressive attitude towards Russia.Peter McKennaLiverpool

• How ill-informed the world stage is concerning Crimea. David Cameron asserts the "illegal referendum" to have been conducted "at the barrel of a Kalashnikov" and the US ambassador to the United Nations risibly likens the situation to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. What the majority ethnic Russian population in Crimea fear is not the Russians but the Ukrainians. My wife spent her childhood in Crimea and has many relatives living there. They welcome the Russian protection, as did the people of the Falkland islands when they, too, appealed to Britain for help.

After the separation from the Soviet Union in 1991, Latvian street signs in Russian were removed overnight. Teachers and other public sector workers were summoned to be "interviewed" by a panel … in Latvian, a language few spoke. My wife, a highly educated teacher, was fortunate. She had attended a Latvian university so was able to pass the test. Many of her colleagues lost their jobs and, even today, you will see highly qualified teachers selling cheap clothes in Riga market.

Russians in Latvia are essentially second-class, stateless citizens, and Crimean Russians feared a similar fate. My Russian mother-in-law spent her last years in a Latvian care home, stateless and without a passport, so unable to leave the country. The rise of Ukrainian nationalism placed Crimean Russians in a similar position. They turned to Mother Russia. The Ukrainians, of course, turned to Europe and the rest of the world to help them, but are likely to become another millstone around the neck of the EU that we all will doubtless have to subsidise in the future.Adrian BrettLondon

• In 2011, the House of Commons adopted a unanimous resolution calling on William Hague to impose a visa ban on 40 Russian officials linked to the killing of Sergei Magnitsky, who had been arrested following his exposure of a $230m scam in which Vladimir Putin's tax police stole money from a British business. Magnitsky died in atrocious circumstances as a result of his treatment by named officials. The US Congress and President Barack Obama adopted a Sergei Magnitsky law, which imposed a visa ban and asset freeze on those linked to Magnitsky's death. One of them failed in the London libel courts last year in his bid, backed by British lawyers who were paid from undeclared sources in an attempt to silence the campaign over Magnitsky's death.

However the British government has refused to abide by the Commons resolution. So when it is reported that David Cameron is prepared to get a bit tougher with Moscow (Crimea crisis: David Cameron dares to poke the Russian bear, 22 March), Putin will be very relaxed given the government's refusal to obey the call from parliament for action on the Magnitsky killers.Denis MacShaneLondon

• The new government in Ukraine faces perhaps a unique problem when it holds its national election on 25 May which needs addressing sooner rather than later. As it insists that Crimea remains part of Ukraine, does it arrange voting booths and ballot boxes in the province? Not to do so would effectively concede the territory to Russia.Colin BurkeManchester

• It appears Russia is seeking to reclaim lost lands re its takeover of Crimea. What would be the consequences, I wonder, if Russia seeks to reclaim Alaska, a few miles across the Bering Straits from Russia, which was sold by the czar in 1867?Tim BornettOld Buckenham, Norfolk