Your report on Vladimir Putin’s progress from pariah to powerbroker (Putin has been taken off the menu and returned to the top table,18 November) reminds me of previous instances where reactionary toffs let their prejudices over Russia cloud their judgment. For example, the former-school-tie brigade viewed the prospect of an alliance with the Soviet Union to confront Hitler as nearly unthinkable at one time, or but in due course had to stomach it.
Michael Holroyd,in his biography of George Bernard Shaw, gives an illuminating example of myopic hostility to Russia by the right even when we desperately needed allies.
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Source: theguardian.com