Letters: red kites are a menace

Free Kaliningrad

Sir: Mark Galeotti was right to identify the exclave of Kaliningrad as a target for a strong western response to any use by Putin of a nuclear weapon against Ukraine (‘Nuclear options’, 8 October).

Perhaps it should be offered the chance of secession from Russia, not only to avoid destruction, but to secure a better future than Putin or any successor could offer. It was subject to terrible ethnic cleansing after its conquest in the second world war, which rules out its return to Germany. But it could lose its dismal association with Kalinin. Under its historic name of Königsberg, it could revert to its previous status as a Free City – within the EU and as part of Nato’s territory.

The West could offer a handsome payment for all the military facilities and weapons Putin has poured into the place: the personnel could be offered Nato pay and conditions or demobilisation.

Similar attractive offers of a Putin-free future might be made to other parts of his crumbling empire.

Richard Heller

London SE1

The present aggressor

Sir: Peter Hitchens states that ‘Russia is by no means the only European power with an aggressive past’ (Letters, 1 October). Quite. But she is the only European power with an aggressive present.

Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Nick Ridout

Ingham, Lincolnshire

Woolly thinking

Sir: I share Charles Moore’s problem of a low temperature workplace (Notes, 8 October). I have some silk thermals but am keeping them in reserve while remembering the walker’s adage of ‘When your feet get cold, put on a hat’. The Thinsulate hat cost a mere £5. Sometimes visitors ask if I’m protecting myself from woodpeckers.

Patrick Benham-Crosswell

Hucking, Kent

Red kite menace

Sir: Paul Sargeantson is right about red kites (‘Killer in our midst’, 1 October): the birds are a menace.