One side of me supports the notion that whilst Olympics are based on national pride, they try and have always tried to be staged regardless of national opinions of loathsome government actions.

The other side of me recalls reading accounts of where the Berlin games in 1936 gave international credibility to the Nazi regime. They had found a small section of society, at that time Jews, gays, gypsies, blacks and Jehova Witnesses, and used them as scapegoats for the ills of society. Putin's laws against gay people, beatings and murders going un investigated, etc has awful parallels.

Stephen Fry, having recently been in Russia filming a soon to be broadcast documentary on the plight of gay people there, wrote an open letter to The Prime Minister and Lord Coe the other day, available on his website. He wrote as a gay Jew, whose mother lost most of her family in concentration camps, noting the respect Hitler got from his games.

On balance, and recalling their support of middle east tyrants to destabilise the West as much as their appalling treatment of their own people, Putin and co need to remember they are supposed to be leading and negotiating for their people not their egos. Sanctions and loss of international credibility are far faster effective instruments of effecting decent behaviour than attrition. Losing the Olympics may be a way forward. We have trade we cannot afford to lose including a huge gas line, but they need the dollars more than we need the gas.