Letters: Banning Russia’s culture only benefits Putin

Don’t ban Russia’s culture

Sir: It is uncouth, illiterate and actually beneficial to Putin when theatres, opera houses and other cultural institutions in Britain and across the globe block access to these heights of culture (‘Theatre of war’, 14 May). During Stalin’s last decade and throughout the Cold War, Isaiah Berlin was a superb help to this country and to Russia through his connection with Anna Akhmatova, including the award to her of an honorary doctorate at New College, Oxford, in June 1965, the year before her death.

Censorship and blocking of the free flow of culture between Russia and western society is what the Soviet Union enforced. It was only by secret means that Boris Pasternak was able to get his novel Doctor Zhivago published abroad in 1958, in translation, two years before his death. It could not be published in Russia until 1987. It’s just mad for the Royal Opera House and Cardiff Philharmonic to copy the Kremlin.

Paul Trewhela

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Dishonourable member

Sir: Lionel Shriver is right to point out that an over-fixation with politicians’ personal lives can obscure our assessment of them as decision-makers (‘Britain’s national character flaws’, 14 May). But the idea that viewing pornography in the House of Commons is a ‘silly, stupid reason’ for Neil Parish to resign goes too far. We trust our public officials not only to vote wisely on our behalf, but also to uphold the dignity of our democratic institutions as they do so. The damaging effects of pornography on children, families and the dignity of women are well known. Watching it in the Commons while exercising a solemn duty to constituents breaches trust and respect to an extent commensurate with losing one’s seat.

Megan Dent

London NW6

Missing the logic

Sir: In your leader of 14 May (Non, merci) you propose forming lots of ad-hoc international alliances but the one group you rule out joining is a looser small-u union with Europe based around free trade, which would potentially solve the Northern Ireland problem at a stroke.