As diplomatic encounters go, the forthcoming official visit to Moscow by David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary, at the invitation of his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, could be of signal significance. For the last three years, Britain has had arguably the worst relationship with Russia of any major western state, one that was seriously undermined by the 2006 murder in London of the former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Mr Milband’s trip, the first official visit by a British foreign secretary to Moscow in five years, could put relations back on an even keel.