IN HIS aggressive stance against Russia, Hugh Bayley fails to grasp that it is probably edgy about former Soviet nations involvement with Nato directly on their doorstep (The Press, March 12).

Russia is modernising its military in part due to the West’s missile defence programme which it obviously deems a threat.

To ignore the sensitivities of Russia regarding security in their own backyard is extremely dangerous and Mr Bayley, supporter in 2003 for illegal war in Iraq, doesn’t mention that Crimea was Russian until 1954 and that Russia’s Black Sea fleet is stationed there.

It is another clear example of why the EU can’t act in a centralist fashion governed from Brussels and influenced by jingoistic America because it doesn’t take into account sensitive economic and strategic regional variations.

Mr Bayley should encourage the EU to form an eastern region independent from Nato. This should calm Russia’s fears of insurgency and Nato superiority.

After all, Hugh can’t seriously believe that Nato could properly protect post-Soviet States from a massive Russian act of aggression, does he?

As Winston Churchill would remind Mr Bayley, to jaw-jaw is better than to war-war, and therefore vital for Ukraine that Russia remains in the G8.

Tom Scaife, Manor Drive, York.