So in these uncertain times, how do you think Russia will react or retaliate now?

Or do you think that they will do nothing and think they've got away with this, to be quite frank?

So what happens next?

Let's get into the debate.

3456060973.

Ian Bond is Director of Foreign Policy, the Centre for European Reform,

and a former British diplomat who served in Russia in the 1990s.

Ian, thank you very much for being with us.

How do you think Russia will react?

Well, there's clearly going to be a lot of noise at the UN.

That's already started with the debate that's going on there at the moment.

But I think actually that the action that the Allies have taken is at the lower end of what the Russians might have feared.

And I think the Americans in particular, who did the bulk of the bombing last night, took extraordinary care not to land anything on the Russians.

And there's a certain amount of diplomatic dancing going on here.

As far as I understand it, the Russians did not use any of their own air defense capabilities last night.

They left it to the Syrians, so they didn't try to obstruct the allies, which they possibly could have done.

They have quite sophisticated air defenses around their bases in Syria.

I think we can probably expect that the Russians will step up their military supplies

to the Syrians and they may do the same with some other countries such as Iran, where

the Americans would probably rather that they didn't. But as I say, I think this is at the lower end of what the Russians might have feared,

and that will probably ultimately be reflected in what the Russians themselves do by way of response.

So is there a possibility that by, if taken at face value, undermining deterring and degrading,

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