There are people who look at the current world crisis and consider it to be part of a Biblical prophesy of the “end times”.

Personally, that it not part of the way that I think, but there is no doubting the significance of the dangerous period we are going through.

I’m old enough to remember the confrontation of the Cuban missile crisis of the early 1960s, albeit as a youngster who didn’t quite understand the significance of it, when a young President JFK stood up to the Russians at the risk of a wider conflict.

And, of course, the latter part of the century saw the tension of the Cold War continue. But never, surely, to the point where we felt world war could be imminent.

Never mind Russia versus the West, across the globe wars and brutal conflict are never far away at all times. We seem to ignore the evils being inflicted on people in numerous places, the list of which reads like a tour around the planet.

But the aggression of Putin and our perception of his narcissistic madness takes this to a whole new level to the point where fears of World War Three are being taken very seriously.

Who would have thought that a Russian president would openly threaten using nuclear weapons? For those urging more aggressive measures against him in the belief he’s a bully that’s bluffing, I’ll take your word for it, in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to come back to challenge you in an Armageddon situation.

Then again, history shows the folly of failing to stand up to evil.

A young person told me this week that he’d decided to avoid the news for a bit because it was making him anxious and he couldn’t sleep.

And to be honest, I find it difficult to get a handle on the wider issues; with so much information swirling around we fall into the confirmation bias of accepting the simple good versus evil narrative.

There are wider issues of the identity of separatists within Ukraine and the invasion of Crimea, for example. And of whether NATO is fulfilling its promises, and how much the west played a part in creating the current circumstances.

But I think of a quote I heard last week; when we come into this world, we know nothing. And by the time we leave it, we know……..that we still know nothing.

What interests me is the human response to this crisis, and what that says about our attitudes to our fellow human beings.

War and the suffering it brings to ordinary people has a way of releasing those attitudes; from the aggression of those in power to the spirit of those who would resist them.

From the empathy of outsiders prepared to help practically, whether to risk life and limb by going to fight alongside the oppressed or simply respond by offering aid or invite refugees in, to those sadly protecting their own interests in the British establishment in particular.

Russia itself is something of a microcosm of humankind and its attitudes to power.

Remember, it’s just over a century since the poverty of factory workers and farmers saw the Russian Revolution overthrow the monarchy of the Tsar.

For most of the last century, Communism ruled but the Soviet system didn’t make life materially easy for many ordinary Russians either, resulting in an attempt at democracy in the perestroika and glasnost era. In effect, though, “reconstruction and openness” meant little more than cosmetic reform of the ruling Communist party.

The point is that it’s not the system; whether Imperialist capitalism or totalitarian socialism rules, it’s the human lust for power and money that corrupts the system.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And nobody illustrates that more than one Vladimir Putin, who seized power and the former KGB man ruthlessly crushed internal dissent and, indeed, rules wider Russian society with an iron rod.

He was, and is, helped in no small measure by the so-called oligarchs who became rich beyond measure in the 1990s when they took personal ownership of the country’s vast reserves of natural resources such as oil and gas.

Putin’s cronies got these at prices much lower than they were worth and we tend to forget that they actually belong to the Russian people. So any notion that oligarchs like Roman Abramovich and numerous others are going to challenge Putin is fantasy.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked many because of the scale of human suffering. We stand with Ukraine not just because our moral compass says the invasion of their country is inherently wrong but because modern communication and the bravery of journalists allows us to see, in real time, the destruction of buildings in cities, the human cost in lives, the trauma inflicted on children and the elderly, all people in fact.

It may seem simplistic in a complicated world to say Putin is the evil aggressor, but he is. And it’s equally uncomfortable to paint Ukrainian president Zelensky as the modern-day embodiment of a brave hero, but his courage and leadership have inspired his people.

The physical invasion of Ukraine has grabbed our attention with a jolt, as these things do. But we’ve been turning a blind eye to many other things that have happened in plain sight over the years.

For starters, Russia entered part of Ukraine and annexed Crimea as far back as 2014.

But more than that, Russia has in a sense invaded many parts of the West, including the United States and Britain by using the dark arts of what journalist Carole Cadwalladr called the Information War to influence society, as well as by using dirty Russian money.

They’ve been influencing and destabilising western society for years, ignored by many in the media.

And in Government. Russia was involved in US elections in 2016 to harm Hillary Clinton’s campaign because it suited them to have a divisive figure like Donald Trump in the White House.

Clear details have emerged that the Russians pumped money into the Brexit campaign, though hardly surprising that they didn’t want a united Europe. And the amounts of money donated to English Tories are eyewatering.

The Sunday Times has revealed that security services in Britain withdrew an assessment that Evgeny Lebedev, a Russian businessman and crony of Boris Johnson, was a security risk to allow him to be appointed to the House of Lords.

It’s not just directly influencing politics, either.

The largesse of Russian oligarchs charms many in western society which has its own corruptions.

A Russian restaurant called Novikov in central London offers a wine list with rare Californian reds at £8,600 a bottle and has attracted customers like Rihanna and Prince Harry. It’s owned by Arkady Novikov, a pal of Putin’s from the days when the Russian president ran the country’s intelligence agency.

It's just one example of where Russians use their wealth across the world to ingratiate themselves into the politics and culture of society, with the added advantage of laundering dirty money. And in particular sport to improve its image.

It’s no coincidence that Russia hosted the 2018 football World Cup, when Putin grinned for the cameras alongside the president of FIFA. They also hosted the World Athletics championships in 2013 and the Winter Olympics of 2014.

By the way, does anybody smell a rat that this year’s World Cup is in Qatar?

Abramovich is one of the more high-profile Russian oligarchs, despite never giving interviews. Chelsea Football Club was in serious trouble back in the 1980s when Ken Bates bought it for £1 and turned it around sufficiently for Abramovich to buy it and pump so much money into it that he wants £3 billion for it today.

In the intervening years, the club has won numerous trophies so it’s understandable that Chelsea's fans love their owner.

But Abramovich is an ally and close confidante of Putin to whom he owes much; and Roman was of course directly involved in politics as a Governor of a Russian region.

It’s not just Chelsea, of course. English football clubs such as Newcastle United have been bought by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, despite his country’s despicable record on human rights.

So, if football fans don’t care where the money comes from, and the egotistical elite society in England enjoys its Russian money and aggrandisement, am I being cynical in suggesting that those in Government were less than enthusiastic in, for example, taking in Ukrainian refugees or seizing the assets of Russian oligarchs.

No?

Turning a blind eye makes society culpable; and it’s not just Russia. Where is our attention on the evils in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, and remember the warmongering in Iraq.

Evil is evil is evil, and should be confronted wherever.

Our people have been wonderful in their response to the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in Ukraine, but others simply don’t care.

It’s a messed-up world.