John Sawers says defence spending needs to increase to counter Vladimir Putin’s actions and Europe needs to find a new way to coexist with RussiaRussia has become a greater threat to Britain and defence spending needed to increase to counter Vladimir Putin’s actions, the former MI6 chief has warned.Sir John Sawers, who stepped down in 2014 after five years of running the Secret Intelligence Service, said the threat posed by Moscow was “not necessarily directly to the UK but to countries around its periphery”.