On both sides of the ex-iron curtain most people have forgotten - if they ever knew - that despite the rise and fall of British imperialism, the American Declaration of Independence, the expansion of Russia under the tsars, the wars of the world, the cold war and the terrifying Cuban confrontation, the US and Russia have been at peace for more than 200 years.

Not once has a shot been fired at the other in anger.

In Riga, Latvia, I had the opportunity the other day to ask one of the top advisers of President Dmitri Medvedev, Igor Yurgens, why so soon after the end of the cold war and the high hopes that went with it relations deteriorated once again.

“We lost trust in each other”.

“OK”, I said in reply. “There have been problems, but are they enough...