Letters to the editor

Bear hug double standards

You ran a story on the meeting between Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, (“Bear-hugging bros”, July 13th). Just before the meeting, Russia launched missile strikes across Ukraine, including on a children’s hospital, killing 44 people. Every sincere person would condemn this brutality and unprovoked attack by Russia on a sovereign nation. You then said Mr Modi still went ahead with the meeting and gave Mr Putin a bear hug. Yet how many times have Western leaders given bear hugs to Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, while Israeli forces bombed civilians, including children, in Gaza and did not spare hospitals.