Walk a Russian mile in Putin’s shoes and give some ground in order to prevent hostilities

Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin (“Biden to Putin: I’ll make it personal”, 27/1), risks war to prevent NATO’s weapons being placed near the Ukraine/Russia border, while US President Kennedy risked war to keep Soviet weapons from Cuba, on the US/Caribbean border.

NATO should listen to Putin’s reasonable concerns and accommodate him as much as possible. After all, would not a democratically elected President of Russia, such as Mikhail Gorbachev or Alexei Navalny, fervently strive for the same?

Alan Magnusson, Birchgrove, NSW

It must be rather fun being Putin. He lives in complete luxury, his country is in no danger, but by giving orders for some propaganda film clips (trucks in snow, soldiers looking fierce with guns) he can make world leaders hop up and down and worry about what he is on about.

Maybe he has run out of things to read; or has used up Netflix.

Sally Graham, Malvern, Vic

Further to Frank Carroll (Letters, 26/1), Russia invaded Finland on November 30, 1939, in a little known war, known as the Winter War. The attempt by the communists to take over Finland in the 1930s had been thwarted by the very strong Finnish President, Carl Mannerheim. But Russia wanted more land and more access to the Baltic Sea. The invasion started at the southeast, on the Karelian Peninsula. The heavily outnumbered Finns fought a brave battle, and were helped by a very cold winter which, literally, froze the poorly equipped Russians to death.

Given its small size, in the end Finland was forced to sign a peace treaty and to give up the Karelian Peninsula to Russia just to survive. Witness the similarity to Crimea in 2014, and the dilemma facing Ukraine now.

How do I know this? My maternal grandfather, Uudo Salmela, was a fighter at the front, known as the Mannerheim Line, where he died in December 1939, at the hands of the Russian aggressors. He left a heartbroken wife and four little children, my mother the youngest. Can I plead for peace, President Putin?

Ian Morison, Forrest, ACT

The Central Land Council blames government inaction and complacency for the impending Covid outbreak about to occur among Aborigines (“Act now to stop wave of deaths in remote communities”, 27/1).

There is only fleeting reference to the fundamental problem, which is the low vaccination rate. As is the case with domestic violence, education, drug use and health in general, these issues can only be solved by their own actions, not by governments.

Dr Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld

Trump v Tame

I bet if one drew a Venn diagram of the people outraged by Grace Tame’s “rude” treatment of the PM, and those who shrugged their shoulders at Donald Trump’s frequent insults and abuse as simply “telling it as it is” or “speaking his mind”, it would be almost a circle.

Han Yang, North Turramurra, NSW

My first car was a brand new 1975 Mighty Mini built at the Leyland’s Zetland assembly yard in inner Sydney. It cost $2000. Living at Bondi I had it rust protected, inside and out.

Within two years it was full of corrosion and kept breaking down in the wet because it had a transverse engine where the spark plugs faced the front grill. There were a host of other mechanical problems.

It was a real lemon. I think I have answered the question, whatever happened to British Leyland (27/1)?

Riley Brown, Bondi Beach, NSW

Congratulations to Dr Alan Finkel on being awarded an AC (“Australia Day honours: from Covid to climate, navigating the extremes for Alan Finkel”, 26/1).

You report that Dr Finkel is currently “chair of the low emissions technology roadmap” with “the ambition to cultivate new and emerging technologies”.

The world already has low emission technology which is used by the other 19 members of the G20 group of nations; it is nuclear power.

Barney McCusker, Mount Gambier, SA

If only one thing is taught in Holocaust education (“Quarter have to ask: what’s the Holocaust?”, 27/1) it should be the poetic form of pastor Martin Niemoller’s postwar confessional prose:

“First they came for the Communists / And I did not speak out / Because I was not a Communist … Then they came for the Jews / And I did not speak out / Because I was not a Jew / Then they came for me / And there was no one left / To speak out for me.”

George Fishman, Vaucluse, NSW