PUTIN IS AS DANGEROUS AS STALIN AND MORE OF A THREAT TO THE WEST THAN ISIS, WARNS BRITAIN FORMER DEFENCE SECRETARY

• MP Bob Ainsworth said Russia's president more powerful than ISIS jihadists
• He said Stalin caused the Cold War but Putin could be just as dangerous
Vladimir Putin is as dangerous as Joseph Stalin and much more of a threat to world peace than ISIS, a former defence secretary has claimed.
A senior Labour MP in Britain, Bob Ainsworth said Mr Putin was more powerful than the jihadists in the Middle East because he had a strong state and military to achieve his ambitions.
The MP called for the Government to launch an urgent review of its military cuts and take a much stronger line against Russian expansionism.
Mr Ainsworth’s remarks come after Prince Charles likened Mr Putin to Hitler during a trip to Canada.
The MP made his stark assessment in an article for a Birmingham public affairs website called the Chamberlain Files.
He said: ‘No leader of a major power has behaved as overtly aggressively since Stalin in the postwar period, and sadly Putin would be very pleased with the comparison.
‘He has said the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century and he claims the right to act on behalf of Russian minorities in other states.
‘As there are Russian minorities throughout the old Soviet Union and far wider he is in principle claiming the right to interfere in the affairs of all of the independent sovereign states of eastern Europe.
‘Stalin's policies pushed the world into the cold war. Putin has the potential to be equally as dangerous.’
Mr Ainsworth, in remarks published in the Times, said Europe needed to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
Source: Daily Mail