SIR – Your briefing rightly mentions that South Ossetia is nominally headed by a “thuggish former Soviet official” and that it “lives off smuggling”. What is curious is that Kosovo is also headed by a person of dubious reputation and that its economy is in the hands of smugglers and arms dealers.
Why did the West have to rush into recognition of Kosovo? Why did it have to bomb Belgrade? Was it not illegal to use NATO in the Balkan war (no member state was attacked, and a dangerous precedent was set)?  Why has America foolishly supported a gambler, Mr Saakashvili, who ignored the limits to which he could push the Russian neighbour?

This tragic affair shows that America (and Europe insofar as it can ever act independently) continues to be incapable of conducting a foreign policy based on a proper understanding on the history of the nations involved, and that provoking a bear is generally foolish unless you clearly know what to do when he wakes up.
Emilio Voli

SIR - The principle that the West should never “allow Russia a veto over any sovereign country’s membership of either NATO or the EU” is not in itself wrong, but it could have dangerous implications. Rightly or wrongly, and whether we like it or not, Russia’s government and many of its people see NATO as an unfriendly military alliance, and its expansion to Russia’s borders as an unfriendly act. I do not see how provoking Russia in this way will enhance the security of either Georgia, Ukraine or the alliance’s existing member states.

Nicholas Aylott