Letters | Wanted in Ukraine-Russia crisis: common sense from Vladimir Putin

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Nato and the United States are morally right to stand with and fortify Ukraine. Although Ukraine is a former Soviet state, the process of self-determination has made it independent, with the sovereign authority to choose its security arrangements, including an alliance with Nato.

Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t correct or sophisticated politically or geopolitically to demand that Nato be off limits to Ukraine whose aspirations lean towards the European Union rather than Russia.

Russia first annexed Crimea by force and now has its eye on the eastern territories of Ukraine. If Putin had any common sense, he should have accepted the dissolution of the USSR as a fait accompli and focused on rebuilding Russia’s economy. Had he done so, Nato and European security matters would have been academic. It isn’t as if there isn’t enough land in Russia for development.