Russian President Vladimir Putin responded with one short sentence when asked at a press conference whether Moscow might strike military facilities in the UK in response to British arms supplies to Ukraine." That's a secret.

A military secret." Military secret is not a "yes".

And not a "no". It leaves us hanging.

And that, I suspect, is the point. Those two words feel like psychological pressure from the Kremlin: to keep Britain guessing - and stressing - over Moscow's intentions, as well as to encourage the UK to think twice about its staunch support for Ukraine.

It reminds me of a newspaper article I read a few days ago. Scary language.

But short on detail about what those nightmares will look like. But look what's happening elsewhere in Europe.

Germany now says Russia was responsible for last month's drone attack at Leipzig airport. Putin accused Germany of "planting the evidence".

Could such "operations" now be stepped up in the UK? Yet it wasn't just Britain that received veiled threats at Putin's press conference.

So did the West in general. Putin referred to Western countries as sharks."

If anyone tries to drag us down the food chain, to gobble us up or devour us, they might get punched in the teeth," he said. " Russia is ready to do that, despite the rapidly growing appetites and teeth of these sharks."

Increasingly Russia's president is mixing the geopolitical with the zoological. He recently spoke about killer whales "tearing polar bears apart" to justify Russia's war on Ukraine.

The press conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, was a fascinating window on Putin's state of mind. For forty-five minutes he took questions from Russian journalists and came across as combative, confident of victory and energised.

These days Putin appears most animated when talking about the geopolitical standoff between Russia and the West and the war in Ukraine. Even though the war has not gone to plan.

Russia has suffered huge losses on the battlefield and the country's economy is under considerable pressure." I have no doubt that the enemy will crumble," he declared.

Yet the war has lasted more than four-and-a-half years and Ukraine fights on. Officially the Kremlin still calls this a "special military operation".