Brothers reunited with sisters, parents reunited with children while the champagne flowed as television cameras captured jubilant dancing in the streets. It marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.  Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev instituted perestroika (reform) and glasnost (open government), eventually causing the nation he led to dissolve in December 1991.

For nearly 25 years, relations between Washington and Moscow have been relatively respectful although a degree of mutual distrust has always been present. The return of Russian President Vladmir Putin to the apex of power in the Kremlin a few years ago has been largely responsible for a deterioration in bilateral relations.

Growing pro-European sentiment in Ukraine has caused friction within the unstable democracy, allowing Putin to swoop in.

The Crimean peninsula was reclaimed by Russia in March with only mild criticism from Western leaders.

Pro-Russian uprisings then spilled over into the eastern provinces of Ukraine. Again, there was little comment or interest. But tensions are now transparently rising after the tragedy of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

Russia announced last week it would place a ban on most food imports from a range of Western nations, including Australia, in response to sanctions imposed on Moscow.

NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called on Russia to “step back from the brink” of war by pulling its troops back from the Ukrainian border.

It is frightening to think that global politics is heading back to the bad old days pre-1989, the days of closed and repressive government in the Kremlin, chest-thumping in the United States and Europe caught in the middle.

The fault-line used to run through Berlin. It now runs through the paddocks of sunflowers in far-flung eastern Ukraine.

Australia needs to press the case for dialogue and understanding between Russia and the United States.

We don’t need another giant wall — either physically or metaphorically.