Macbeth And The Irrational

In response to Quentin Peel's Wednesday column in the FT about the "puzzling" nature of Putin's "gas logic" in the Gazprom-Ukraine crisis, one reader had a perceptive comment to make:

Putin’s gas logic is in short supply, Quentin Peel, today

As regards the general puzzlement at Mr Putin’s irrational policy towards Ukraine, there is an explanation in addition to the two adumbrated by Mr Peel. Irrational behaviour can sometimes be explained by deeply-felt guilt.

The dioxin that poisoned Mr Yushchenko and nearly caused his death just prior to Ukraine’s Orange Revolution is believed by experts to have come from the laboratories of the FSB, Russia’s “security” service. Analysts who have studied the matter are convinced that the use of such a poison for a political assassination would have had to be authorised at a senior level.

Does the story of Macbeth offer a clue to the observed irrationality of recent events?

Jeremy Putley