The BBC news this morning was keen to see two sides to the Russia-Georgia conflict. Not so Denis MacShane, who writes in The Telegraph:

Czechoslovakia was once described by a Conservative prime minister as "a faraway country of which we know nothing". Many may feel similarly about Georgia. But the frontiers of today's Europe now stretch to the Black Sea. Britain's energy supplies depend on a narrow pipeline stretching from Azerbaijan, across Georgia, to Turkey.

The failure of foreign policy in the 1990s led to a million or more people from Balkan states flooding into northern Europe as asylum seekers, many heading for our shores. As jihadist Islamism seeks new terrorism bases further east, Britain's security now requires engagement in the troubled arc of instability from eastern Turkey to the states of the Caucasus and all the countries ending in "stan".

Into this stewpot, Vladimir Putin has dropped - literally - a bombshell. By ordering a full-scale military invasion of Georgia, he has revealed the true face of his autocratic rule. By flying in person to the scene as if he was field commander-in-chief, he is showing the world that Russia will revert to being a military power willing to bully and threaten its neighbours.

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The dispute in Georgia will find some temporary brokered settlement. But the bloody assault unleashed by Putin adds new dangers and difficulties to Europe. Once again, Russia threatens peace, stability, the rule of law and the rights of sovereign democracies on its border.