Thirteen years ago, Vladimir Putin went to watch a martial arts tournament and, as he congratulated the winner of one heavyweight bout, the unthinkable happened: a large section of the crowd began booing and jeering their shocked leader.
But Putin, after 24 years in power, will secure a fifth term in office following a rubber-stamp election at the weekend after crushing all dissent in his country. Putin looks unassailable, having killed, exiled or jailed all rivals – including Vladimir Kara-Murza, the dual Russian-British citizen who was given a 25-year sentence for 'treason' after speaking out against the war – despite the disastrous start to his attempted full-scale invasion and the West's unexpectedly unified response.
And yet the West remains stunningly complacent about the challenge this tyrant presents to our way of life and our democratic values. Now Macron seems to have woken up. He is driving up defence spending to its highest level for half a century while simultaneously doubling the number of reservists, reinforcing cyber-security and drastically boosting funding for intelligence.
The French and Polish leaders were in Berlin last week, trying to persuade the ultra-cautious German leader Olaf Scholz to deploy long-range, low-flying and bunker-busting Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
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Source: DailyMailUK - 🏆 7. / 90 Read more »