Russia withdrew its request to refuel its warships in a Spanish port, so Moscow and Madrid both found a diplomatic way to get themselves off a difficult hook. However, the passions aroused by Spain's willingness to refuel Russian vessels were real, especially since this time the Russian task group was on its way - as the British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon put it - ‘to bomb Syrian civilians in Aleppo’. How would it look, just as NATO defence ministers met to strengthen their forces in the Baltic, Poland and around the Black Sea, if one of their members was helping a Russian task group on its way to a conflict where many Nato governments have accused Moscow of carrying out war crimes through its indiscriminate bombing?