It's been a truly unsettling week, hasn't it? The threat of war and the humbling stories of bravery from the people of Ukraine have succeeded in giving everything we take for granted a very different glow.

The simple act of writing a newspaper article, playing some records on the radio, and the other bits and pieces of work we’ve been doing this week feel pitifully insignificant. 

You can only admire the bravery of Ukrainian men and women arming themselves to defend their homeland and wonder what we’d do in similar circumstances.

I’ve done a few tweets and changed my profile picture to the image of me celebrating with young Ukraine football fans after their win over Sweden in the Euro 2020 match at Hampden Park, Glasgow in June of 2021. 

It feels pathetic, but surely it is still better than doing nothing, which is shamefully what many of us have done while Putin has bullied his way to power and corrupted our politics with dirty money and radioactive poisons. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky has emerged as a hero out of this so far because of his bravery and honesty. 

As has the former boxer Wladimir Klitschko and his brother Vitali, the Mayor of Kyiv. 

A former comedian and actor, Zelensky has galvanised and inspired people to support Ukraine in whatever way they can.

So hopefully a bit of virtue signalling doesn’t just exist to make me feel better, but it adds to the overwhelming feeling of support for the people of Ukraine, which has in turn encouraged our cynical and opportunistic leaders to read the room and take slightly more decisive action than taking away Vladimir Putin’s Nectar points.

The Russian state has consistently used sport and culture to wield soft power. Sometimes with violence, sometimes with charm. 

The plane-loads of Russian hooligans in Marseille at the Euro 2016 football championships were clearly sent on a mission to batter the English and to terrify them into thinking again about throwing plastic chairs and bullying locals outside the Irish bars of Moscow at the 2018 World Cup. I think it worked. 

Putin thought it was hilarious and made no attempt to condemn them, though of course hooligans of all nationalities were remarkably absent from the World Cup in Russia.   

The whole circus was a PR triumph for Putin, projecting the image globally that he had created an orderly society with a strong leader.  

What has been remarkable however is how few of the former Soviet states want close ties to this gangster imperial state. 

I went to Estonia in 2018 and was struck by how enthusiastic the people were for their technologically advanced country with close ties to Europe. 

The citizens of these countries aren’t pawns in a power play between NATO, the EU, or the West who should occupy some demilitarised buffer zone so as not to upset poor little Vlad, as one dismal British grifter claimed this week. 

They are people with the agency to make their own choices and they have shown how valuable they cherish their way of life, of their sport, music, art, and technology. Maybe the people of Russia will realise too that they deserve far better than what they’ve been served up by Putin. 

You can listen to Michael Taylor and Neil Summers on Music Therapy on Tameside Radio 103.6FM on Sunday evenings from 9pm to 11pm. Click here to subscribe and catch up on previous shows.

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