Coraggio morale
If you are an unconstrained authocrat. And you take a risk and it pays off then you think "oh is good". And then you take another risk, bigger risk and it pays off, then you think "hmm I'm good at this aren't I" And then you take a bigger risk and the whole thing gets more and more dangerous. And that's exactly what was happening with Putin. He started taking risks. The West all sat on his hands and did nothing about it. And he thought "Oh well that's fine. I can take risks and they pay off." ...the moral fault is with Putin and the russian government but the opportunity was there at an earlier stage to have us to have stepped in but we chose not to because it was easier not to and we all like having donations from russian oligarchs to our parties in London. And we like going to their parties in London in another party sense. ...And it led to disaster. So it's complete lack of moral courage in my view. Lord Jonathan Evans MI5 Direct...