After the breakup of the Soviet Union Western Intelligence Services lost their focus. The major confrontation had been with the communist system's KGB. But that had gone. Some of the old KGB spies set themselves up in business in the new private security sector and in the West the spies who had shadowed the KGB seemed redundant. The new threat was terrorism. But terrorism was also undergoing radical change. The new terrorists were Islamic terrorists and no one seemed to have a clue what to do about them. They just did not fit in. Mossad had a lot of experience but hardly provided a model for success in counter terrorism. But counter terrorism was the issue of main concern and the Russians were are also under serious threat from Islamic terrorism. Putin began his career as a KGB officer and eventually became head of the KGB. After the fall of the Soviet Union he became involved in politics and is regarded by many as having successfully steered the Russian economy out of the chaotic beginnings onto a more stable course. But Putin retained his contacts with his old KGB contacts and he is identified with Russian national interests rather than any political ideology. He became the strongest Russian leader since Stalin and is still the key leader as Prime Minister. He is nor feared as Stalin was and unlike Stalin is in touch with reality; he is a shrewd operator. He has used Western connections to further the interests of the Russian government. Russia has important natural resources which the West needs and Russia has benefited from rises in the price of oil. Under Putin's leadership Russian espionage has developed and is once again a threat. We are not returning to the style of espionage of the Cold War era because too much has changed. The Communist ideology no longer reigns to mesmerise Western idealists. The West has also lost its ideological appeal. Freedom and human rights used to be ideals which motivated dissent. Now they are at serious risk everywhere and increasingly regarded as lost causes in the age of technological surveillance. Only governments can have secrets. They use security services to spy on and control their citizens, to steal the secrets of global companies and foreign powers and they lie, steal torture and kill to get what they want and preach morality on television, in newspapers and other media. We accept this as normal but it might have shocked people in the old days of the Cold War when ideals were fashionable. Islamic terrorists have facilitated the demise of freedom. They have displaced the Marxist revolutionaries. They are a threat to us all, not least to themselves. But they are not the only threat. Our rulers are bullies in smart suits. And they spy on us.