LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vladimir Putin sees Obama, Angela Merkel as weak

OPINION:

Leftist Germans do not want to offend Russia by sending arms to Ukraine, but they do not mind offending the Baltic and other endangered states by not doing so (“Obama, Merkel at odds over arming Ukraine against Russia,” Web, Feb. 9). Anti-Ukrainian, former-East-German communists led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and socialists at home and abroad oppose American arms to Ukraine. They ignore that Russians have killed 5,400 Ukrainians while signing treaty after treaty. Treaties mean nothing to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who perceives weakness in President Obama, President Hollande and Mrs. Merkel.

These leaders beg for signed paper promises, which Mr. Putin gladly signs — while Russian troops capture more and more terrain in Eastern Ukraine. Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Hollande fail to grasp that Stalin in 1932-1933 murdered 10 million Ukrainians in the Holodomor genocide terror famine, and Mr. Putin follows the same world-domination path of his predecessors. His predecessors, from 1917 to 1989, murdered 100 million, and Mr. Putin glorifies that past seeking to emulate it.

LT. COL. DOMINIK GEORGE NARGELE

U.S. Marine Corps (retired)

Arlington