Russia’s star
Sir: Wolfgang Münchau is surely right to highlight the risk posed to European peace and stability by Germany’s strategic myopia (‘In the pipeline’, 22 January). But he may be in error to assert that ‘Russia is in the ascendant’ — at least in terms of the fundamentals. Russia no longer makes it into the top ten of the world’s economies and is about to be overtaken by South Korea. Its poorly developed economy is unduly reliant on energy exports — a sort of Saudi Arabia with snow instead of sand.
A state whose star is rising has every incentive to sit tight and allow that to continue — which is what China has been doing for years. It’s when a country’s leaders perceive that the future looks less good than the present that things can unravel. Such was the case for Germany in 1914 — as the Chief of the German General Staff put it in May that year: ‘The sooner, the better.’ The future for Ukraine, and Europe, may depend on whether Putin thinks ‘Peak Russia’ lies in the future or in the present.
Dr Jeremy Stocker
Associate Fellow, RUSI, Willoughby, Warks
Poor deal
Sir: Martin Vander Weyer describes the BBC licence fee as a ‘stealth-tax irritation’ (Any other business, 22 January). I agree. I can easily afford the financial cost, however there are many in our society to whom £159 is a significant sum. Lone parents, the unemployed, those in debt — all must pay the regressive telly tax whether they use the BBC or not. The licence fee thus acts as a protection racket imposed on the poorest in our land. At the very least this government should remove BBC licence-fee enforcement from the criminal justice system. The Magistrates Association has long pleaded for this (their courts are clogged with licence-fee cases).
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