I related to what Anne Penketh said about her time in the Soviet Union as a journalist (Freezing out my Russian friend is the only way I can fight Putin’s propaganda, 22 March) because my husband and I worked for three years in Moscow during the early 1970s. Our experiences were similar, such as taking the roundabout route when visiting Russian friends. These weren’t silly precautions, nor was it just because of low-level harassment: my husband’s English boss was eventually murdered by the KGB.
And, yes, the Russians were pro‑western and told scathing jokes about their government. But what has happened to these delightful, highly intelligent and very aware people who believed nothing that they read in the two state newspapers, Pravda (the Truth) and Izvestia (the News), saying of them: “There’s no news in the Truth and no truth in the News”?
Jane Dallimore
York
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