The press conference was called after about three hours of talks, a little earlier than expected. Had a deal been struck? A ceasefire?

Hot takes among the dozens of journalists assembled at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage suggested this was a sign of disaster for Vladimir Putin: he’d clearly infuriated Donald Trump. Not a bit of it. We knew immediately from the smiles on stage.

Putin spoke first and went out of his way to list as many examples of common ground he shared with Mr Trump as he could.

In a speech that could have been written a year ago, we were treated to a canter through shared Soviet and American experiences in the Second World War, then a reference to a military burial site in Alaska and the graves of soviet pilots (it was “worthy and noble” of the local

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