Now that Putin is Xi’s ‘best and bosom friend’, where does that leave the west?

An ever closer alliance between Beijing and Moscow has the Pentagon worried as a threat to US power in east Asia

It sounds unpleasant, even painful. But as they ponder the linked challenges posed by China and Russia, Pentagon strategists are earnestly discussing whether Vladimir Putin, Russia's famously athletic leader, will perform a "reverse Nixon".

This is neither a daring swivel on the parallel bars nor an unusual sexual position. At issue is whether Putin will emulate the 37th US president, Richard Nixon, whose groundbreaking 1972 cold war outreach to China tilted the strategic balance in America's favour.