Letter: Russia should put people first

NEAL ASCHERSON usually provides one of the few voices of sanity in a generally right- wing media, but he is completely off track when he argues that the best way to deal with the growth of fascism in Russia, symbolised by the votes for Valdimir Zhirinovsky, is for Boris Yeltsin to push ahead with market reforms.

It is the impact of those very reforms that are driving people to support people like Zhirinovsky. The urgent task now in Russia is for the left to understand that a politics which opposes the market and puts the needs of people first can push fascism back and provide a brighter future for ordinary Russians.

Keith Flett

London N17