Sir, – Further to "The Irish Times view on US protests: the world is watching" (Editorial, June 3rd), what in the world makes you think that the president of Russia is a "pandemic denialist"?
President Vladimir Putin has been leading a huge national effort to fight infection with a wide range of measures.
How can you consider Russia, a country with a democratically elected president and parliament, to be “authoritarian”?
Russia’s position both on G7 and the US president’s proposal for an expanded G7 is well known. We noted the US president’s opinion that he considers the G7 to be “a very outdated group”, which does not adequately represent “what is going on in the world”. We agree.
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It is impossible to deal effectively with issues of global policy and economy within the closed clubs of western countries.
We have an efficient, proven format with a good track record – the G20, which includes the G7, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.and other leading centres of economic growth and political influence of the entire world, not just one part of it.
It takes a lot of imagination to see “glee” and “jibes” in the Russian reaction to US protests. We have been following events very closely, emphasising that this is an internal affair of the US. Naturally, Russians share the view that violence is not a method to solve problems. We always prefer dialogue. – Yours, etc,
YURIY FILATOV,
Ambassador,
Russian Federation,
Rathgar,
Dublin 14.