This strongly worded letter to the Washington Post brings back the civilization-vs.-barbarism trope back into the Russia debate. We think this reader takes it too far, but can understand the frustrations of authoritarianism and the lies we are told about power.

Letters to the Editor Mr. Putin’s Facade It’s nothing less than droll how Russian President Vladimir Putin oscillates [editorial, April 22] between trying to impress the world with the fiction of his and Russia’s supposed urbanity and lashing out with such brutish tactics as the shameless attempts to undermine the political stability of two smaller neighbors, Georgia and Ukraine, knowing that he can blackmail his country’s weak-kneed European gas customers, such as France and Germany, into rejecting even the idea of NATO’s eastern expansion.