I am grateful for Alex Boot’s very full response to my stated views on the Crimean crisis and, indeed, I am pleased to discover myself in agreement with much of what he has said. But I would continue to maintain that it is not a matter of whether Putin is a nice man or the leader of an evil empire comparable to that of Hitler’s and similar to Hitler’s in so many ways. I know that Hitler could have been stopped on many occasions before 1939. And I never had any sympathy for the appeasers.

But – it may be that this comparison with Hitler is a perfect analogy. I don’t know. It may be in the West’s interests to stand up to Putin – not that the West will. But that is not my point. I simply maintain that Putin believes he is acting in his interests; and that, tactically and strategically, control of the Crimea is very important to him. Of course, it might not be in Putin’s interests to do as he is doing in the Crimea: only he has judged that he is acting according to his interests.