Whose freedom?
Sir: I will leave others to refute Mr Etazarov's leapfrogging propositions (Letters, June 23); they illustrate rather satisfyingly the well known defects of dialetcit — but feel obliged to say that recent history rules out of court anyone with a Russian name presuming to lecture members of an open society about free speech. i do not know whether Mr Bazarov is emigr6, refugee, agent or stooge. Whatever he is, he must know that the West is not yet quite so besotten with the falsities, fabrications and agitprop of the messianic Russian leadership to be ripe for darts from within the walls.
Arguments like Mr Bazarov's are not disinterested enquiries into free speech, the rights of the individual, or such matters. They are designed, however unimportant they may in themselves be, to push the West along its Gadarene path, to discard the truth, and embrace the lie.
We know the mangy bear is on its hind legs, and lumbering towards us, with its exultant lusts masked — funnily enough, quite ineffectively — behind an ideology. It may be too late to try to halt it with a burst of rat poison. But need we entertain one of its attendant pests in our midst?
If I malign Mr Bazarov, then I apologise. But he must blame his fellow countrymen for instilling deep, and amused, cynicism among western folks when they hear a Slav droning on about free speech. I mean, I'm not saying anything controversial. Come off it, Mr Bazarov!
Alastair MacGregor 85 Langley Hill, King's Langley, Herts.
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