A WISE man once said that when Russians look beyond their borders, they see only enemies or serfs.

I am reminded of this as Russia invades the Ukraine. Byelorussia, under its dictator Lukashenko, has played the role of serf, tamely allowing a Russian army of some 50,000 men to assemble on his turf.

This army is now heading for Kyiv, capital of the Ukraine, in the hope of converting the country from enemy to serf. Presumably Putin intends to set up a puppet regime in Kyiv.

And will Putin stop there? Not if he can help it. He once said that the fall of the Soviet Union was ‘the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century’. By this I think he meant the greatest blow to Russian power in his lifetime.

I think he has hopes of taking the Baltic republics. With his troops in Byelorussia and the Ukraine he would surround the Baltics on every side. They are small territories with a population of only around eight million people between them.

The Russians could occupy the Baltics in a few days, whilst NATO would need weeks to bring meaningful numbers of soldiers into the region. Russia itself has been invaded many times, and has suffered much, so it is understandable that they are touchy about their security.

The tragedy is that they think that they can only be secure if they dominate their neighbours, rather than trading with them in peace.

David Martin