Russians ruffled

HOW many times have our politicians said that an EU army is a fantasy which isn’t going to happen? Are they serial lairs, stupid or both?

EU foreign affairs chief Federica mogherini has published a document (held back until after the June 23 referendum) calling for further merging of member states’ armed forces. In response, UK Defence Secretary michael Fallon told Brussels to forget creating an EU army if it wants the continued support of the British military.

In reply to the russian annexation of Crimea and incursion into eastern Ukraine, David Cameron sanctioned the deployment of a 500- strong battalion of British troops to Estonia and a further company of 150 to Poland. Britain is to take over leadership of the Nato very-high readiness Joint Task Force from next year with 3,000 troops in the UK and Germany on standby to move at as little as five days’ notice.

Isn’t it the fault of continual EU expansion eastwards that has ruffled russian feathers? As Nato gets closer, they feel more threatened.

In most countries bordering russia, there are russian speaking enclaves that owe their allegiance to moscow, not the EU. This is a legacy of the old USSR, when people within its borders moved and worked in other parts of the country, a bit like the EU.

Wouldn’t it have been better to insist that those countries that want to join the EU cede these areas to russia? After all, it’s what the majority of the population living in these areas wants. many people like to say that the EU has kept the peace in Europe since its inception. It’s Nato, led by the U.S. and Britain, that has been tasked with this responsibility for many years.

WENDY REES, Wolstanton, Staffs.