Putin launches an ICBM but tells Washington first.

It is extraordinary that in this crazy world where all the rules of international behaviour have been broken by Russia, well by Vladimir Putin I should say, Moscow still adhered to the traditional protocol by warning the US of an imminent test launch of its giant Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. It's kind of slightly reassuring even though the message from the Kremlin was so obvious it was like a slap in the face: We've got a bigger ICBM than you over there in DC and it works pretty damned well. OK, Putin, we get the message but who is kidding whom? Whatever happens in Ukraine there is no way, I repeat no way, this is all going to end up with a nuclear war and the obliteration of Planet Earth. So stop showing off with your nuke muscles, Putin. No one is impressed. I noticed the cool Pentagon press secretay John Kirby put it to one side very quickly, saying there was no threat posed to the US and got on with answering questions about Ukraine. The fact that Moscow told Washington about the ICBM test shows that someone in the Kremlin or ministry of defence still has respect for longstanding arrangements between the world's two nuclear superpowers. Long may that last for all our sakes.