• A CORE weakness of authoritarian regimes is that lies are built into the system and officials are afraid to inform their superiors of the truth.

Reports abound that Vladimir Putin’s closest allies are too frightened to inform him on what is really happening in Ukraine and the extent of his miscalculation.

From the resistance of the Ukrainian army to the severe sanctions imposed by the west, the Kremlin has badly misjudged what it hoped would be a swift campaign.

Today’s authoritarian states may possess new technologies to suppress citizens and threaten neighbours, but their weaknesses remain the same as before.

Ultimately Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was not only an attack on a sovereign state but also an assault on the very notion of democracy.

This must render us all the more resolved to react strongly against any insidious totalitarian trends within our society, the rubber-stamping of parliament; anti-democratic controls by the executive; and authoritarianism within the civil service.

How truly are we a genuine democracy and how libertarian under what George Orwell called “the most class-ridden country under the sun”?

CN KYLE, N7