The Russian bear is not to be trusted.

In an interview with the BBC Sir John Sawers the recently retired head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) has said "Russia is always a concern... Putin's own security is also at stake". This may in part explain the murder of Mr Boris Nemtsov an opposition politician in Moscow on Friday night. He was shot in the back from a passing car. We in the West have not taken sufficiently seriously the sabre rattling coming from Mr Putin and have looked the other way, especially to the Middle East of Syria and Iraq. Moreover we have reduced our spending on defence and its likely to fall below the target of 2% of GDP unless steps are taken at the next Strategic Defence Review (SDR) to rectify this after the election in May. Its 70 years since the end of the last war and we are again in a parlous state with regard to external forces. Although these may not be an existential threat in the same way as Hitler was in WW2 - we must be prepared as the Russian bear is not to be trusted and always unpredictable.