Madam, - Permit me space to congratulate the Finnish government on its leadership of the EU through a very difficult period and for its recent conclusion of a deal on EU energy supplies which may help secure all our futures.
Finland is the closest western neighbour to Russia. Throughout the Cold War it sat astride the fault line between east and west - it was the Berlin wall of the north. One false move and it was just another Communist asset. The Finns know the Russians about as well as the Cubans know the Americans - and for very similar reasons.
They know that there are very powerful players who want to use energy as a weapon to destabilise Putin, and they know that a destabilised Russia is not in Europe's interests. Their diplomatic leadership of the EU, which expires on December 31st, has been as sure-footed a presidency as there has ever been in the EU, especially after the unmitigated disaster that was the UK presidency. They have a short time in charge of the agenda (six months) and they are a small country (with less than 1 per cent of the EU population). To achieve a "détente" with Russia over the issue of energy would be a major coup for Germany or France. For Finland to have brokered the agreement may seem astonishing. Yet it is hard to imagine any other country that could have delivered a deal on this important issue.
The threat of Russia's Gazprom is the threat of a monopoly supplier of a vital commodity within a capitalist system. Gazprom is a private company in the international energy market which attempted to buy up recently privatised energy utilities across Europe. This would have given it a complete chain from exploration to customer and the ability to exercise predatory pricing to eliminate all competition and explode any notion of national controls on energy markets.
Europe doesn't need a Russian monopoly in its energy supply, any more than the US needs all its oil to come from Venezuela.
The deal arrived at with Russia limits Gazprom's predatory acquisition of EU energy utilities in return for long-term commitments to buy Russian energy. Putin is nobody's fool. He has shown that he can turn off the taps if the need arises and he knows that Europe needs his energy. But he also knows that Europe cannot allow itself to become dependent on an unreliable trade partner for such a vital commodity.
Putin has used energy as a means to drive a wedge between the EU and the US. He sees a bigger picture - and one that the cold warriors and deluded ideologists in Washington have yet to grasp. He doesn't want US bases in Ukraine or anywhere else in his region, and one cold winter in Kiev was all that was needed to make the point.
In the past wars have been fought to assert similar interests; one is presently being lost in Iraq. Putin has won his war without firing a single shot. That is an example of the careful exercise of power by an intelligent leader. Such subtleties of diplomacy may be lost on a US commentators more used to power being wielded through the barrel of a gun.
The real loser in this deal is not Putin or the EU but the US. Pragmatism has prevailed over neoliberal fundamentalism, security over military adventurism. It is no coincidence that this deal has been struck just as the inevitable US defeat in Iraq is finally becoming clear to all.
Europe has secured its energy supply and Russia has secured its borders. Meanwhile, 650,000 lives have been lost, US energy supply is endangered, its national security is compromised, its regional influence is diminished and its economic stability has been undermined.
To paraphrase the Miami Herald on its assessment of Fidel Castro: "Bush plays draughts whilst Putin plays chess." - Yours, etc,
SIMON McGUINNESS, St Joseph's Cottages, Ashtown, Dublin 7.