Royal assent

I AFFIRM the accuracy of Prince Charles’s latest comment on Vladimir Putin, in which he is said to have likened the Russian president to Hitler (your report, 23 May).

I lived for seven years in the Soviet Union just after glasnost. My tiny republic, hidden in the centre of the massive complex, believed it was still communist. So it carried on as before, assigning to all foreigners their own KGB follower who knew where you were every minute of the day. We therefore got to know the KGB community with whom we were forced to live. The middle range were just reliable, trusted figures, who could on occasion show a kind heart. The lower level were crooks, while those at the very top were such that you just ran from as fast as possible. Such is Putin, supported only by the hypnotically drawn. Marxism, with no god other than itself, is not obliged to adhere to any moral code. Lie telling is the norm. Western authorities require decisions to be made by powerful people with no experience at all of life there. So I applaud Prince Charles.

Margaret E Salmond 

Dunbar Street

Aberdeen