If anybody is surprised to hear that Vladimir Putin is planning to host his friends of the “axis of evil” in Moscow, they have presumably been on the moon this year.Putin knows that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is a disaster and his only chance of personal survival is to revert to a border stalemate in the Donbas with the West looking the other way and losing interest. This is why he wants to help cut the supply of western battle-winning equipment to Kyiv.
As UK Parliament is progued for the next two weeks, and both main parties are thinking about the general election in 12 months time, with promises to sort out the cost of living, NHS waiting lists, inflation and so on, Westminster is doing us all a great disservice.
The meeting in Moscow is, I’m afraid, the stuff of James Bond movies, but in this story, 007 is not going to swing on a golden Kremlin candelabra to save the day. What is going to save the day is the collective energy, efforts, and military “show of commitment” by all at Westminster, Washington and the EU to ensure, at all costs, that war does not escalate in the Middle East.
Iran has also been openly supporting Hezbollah, the terror group based in Lebanon, for a number of years and has been supporting Russian operations in Syria. Remember, that those in Moscow are doing all they can to ensure there is war. Let’s hope Sunak and Starmer are up to this challenge which must trump all their others at the moment. Some collective political unity is required to prevent us all slipping into the abyss of war.Hamish de Bretton-Gordon