In an interview published in January, President Barack Obama played down the legendary American diplomat who was the architect of the cold war policy towards the Soviet Union known as “containment”. “I don’t really even need George Kennan right now,” he told the New Yorker.

Three months later, however, with Russian troops now controlling Crimea and its operatives assisting protesters in eastern Ukraine, Mr Obama’s White House is looking to the insights of Mr Kennan for clues on how to deal with Moscow’s new assertiveness.

Having said for weeks that Russia will face economic “costs” in the short term if it seeks to intervene directly in eastern Ukraine, the Obama administration is also now discussing the idea of resurrecting some form of a containment strategy to isolate Russian leader Vladimir Putin over the long run.