I USUALLY find myself nodding in tacit agreement with most of Harry Reid's articles but I must take exception to his exoneration of Angela Merkel ("Russia has nothing to fear from the West", The Herald, July 29).

If, as leader of the most powerful trading nation in Europe, she is big enough and bad enough (as she has demonstrated) to rattle her Prussian sabre at the impotent Greeks, Italians and Spanish, and, as Mr Reid points out, she is someone well versed with the labyrinth political machinations of the Russian mind, she is ideally placed to show leadership to his "dismal quartet".

Germany is wealthy enough to source its energy needs at a higher price from other sources, at least in the short term, and, if the kind of sanctions were put in place that the West is capable of, I think that there is little doubt, given the current weak Russian economy, that Mr Putin would blink first.

Andy Trombala,

Halcyen, Park Terrace, Stirling.