What power do we have over Putin?

While navel-gazing about our politics, we have insufficiently noticed events in Russia last week, where at risk of their liberty and even their lives thousands of demonstrators turned out in several cities to protest against the cruel, corrupt and kleptocratic rule of Vladimir Putin.

I found myself in Geneva the other day and, talking to a United Nations official, learnt of concerns that the West has taken its eye off Putin. He poses a grave threat to the world order, and we should not ignore the increasing repression in Russia itself against those angered by a regime that still lives off the fat of the land, despite plunging oil revenues and sanctions that have hit ordinary Russians hard.

When Putin is challenged his inclination is to strike out: but what response would we make if he does, given the shaky state of our diplomacy and the depleted condition of our Armed Forces?