the iconic figure of that position is viktor 0rban in hungary, who has said himself that he wants a kind the big danger is complacency, is saying, "we're not living in 1913. we're not living in 1938." we might be. can it really be that europe's whole future, everything has turned around because of one man's attitudes, because of vladimir putin solely deciding to invade ukraine and so on? or are there bigger principles behind him? under him, russia reverted to type, if you like, went back to the imperialism and the authoritarianism that had characterised both tsarist russia and communist russia. and so there is an appetite in russia for this kind of... ..self—definition, this kind of...this characterisation of the nature of the russian state. and i suspect that what we're doing now is walking along the edge of the razor blade, but that at some stage, we'll get over it. what are you? are you pessimistic or optimistic? i err towards pessimism these days, john. even today, 80 years on, the europeans still think of that moment, that 1944—45 moment, in very, very different terms and still thin