During the bleak years of the Thirties, Winston Churchill was a brave and lonely voice warning Britain of the dangers of Nazi aggression in Europe.
Today, as the Putin regime in Russia sets about dismembering its neighbours, it has fallen to Prince Charles to speak the truth about the deadly threat of this modern dictator.
The heir to the throne’s private remark that Vladimir Putin was behaving like Adolf Hitler has made headlines around the world.
It has also provoked furious reactions from propagandists in Moscow — who warn that Charles ‘risks international scandal’ — and royal-bashers here in Britain.
Admittedly, he is hardly the oracle of our day. The scores of often hectoring letters he sends to government ministers are regarded by some as an abuse of his position.
Many find his mother’s approach better: she maintains a veil of silence over her private views. Charles is going to have to understand that when he becomes King he will simply not be able to make comments like this.
But that time has not come yet, and on this occasion Charles was not lobbying ministers, or making a speech on foreign policy — which would be none of his business.
He was chatting privately to Marienne Ferguson, an 87-year-old who fled Poland before Hitler (and Stalin) dismembered that country in 1939.
The Prince was being friendly, sensitive and pertinent. Younger royals might learn something from him. So could other world leaders.
They appear to be unwilling — or too outright scared — to highlight the parallels between Vladimir Putin’s regime in the Kremlin and the Third Reich.
Europe is pitifully dependent on Russian gas. Imposing serious economic sanctions against Putin could lead him to turn off the taps, thus endangering our fragile economic recovery.
World leaders such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, Barack Obama in the U.S., and our own David Cameron flinch from confrontation. They know how unstable and dangerous to international relations Russia has become.
Their intelligence services tell them about the nationalist frenzy which now has the country in its grip. They know about the mischief and meddling of Putin’s spooks abroad — including in the heart of Nato and the EU.
Dailym
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