In China, the Olympics erupt in a blaze of glory while in Georgia, the town of Gori is also in flames.

But Gori burns and innocent civilians perish because Georgia is under attack from the military might of its neighbour – providing a sobering warning that the Russian bear has not been dead, just sleeping. And now it is flexing its military muscles again.

Indeed, in all the anguish about the economic dangers from China and the fundamentalist threat from the Middle East it has been easy to ignore the fact that Russia has been rearming and presents by far the greatest threat to the West.

It is less than two decades since the Iron Curtain came down, putting an end to the evils of communism – a time when Russia was feared for the threat it posed to the free world.

On top of that, Russia is led by a man who was one of the stalwarts of that regime. What fools we would be to think that Vladimir Putin was any friend of the West.

In Britain we have got so used to friendly oligarchs buying our football clubs that we have forgotten what a menace Russia presents.

And this is the same Russia that we are dependent on for fuel supplies. If, 10 years ago, Labour had taken the decision to go nuclear matters would be different. As it is, Heaven help us all.