On Tuesday, a Russian Su-27 fighter compelled down a US MQ-9 drone over the Black Sea.In feedback the next day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that relations between Russia and the US had hit their “lowest level.”However the lowest level since when? With the US and Russia routinely scraping backside in the case of bilateral relations, maybe we want new superlatives to explain how dangerous issues are. A little bit of historic perspective serves as a reminder that confrontation between the 2 nuclear-armed nations will be a lot sharper:The warfare in Syria. In February 2018, a US contingent on the bottom in japanese Syria clashed with a drive advancing on their base that included members of the Russian non-public navy firm Wagner. US troops known as in air strikes and artillery on the opposing drive, inflicting dozens of casualties on the Wagner mercenaries and their Syrian allies.The Chilly Conflict. Although the Chilly Conflict noticed the Cuban missile disaster and a number of other nuclear shut calls, it’s much less remembered immediately that the Chilly Conflict escalated right into a scorching one between US and Soviet forces at a number of factors in the course of the decades-long confrontation.The Korean Conflict. Through the Korean Conflict, US fighter pilots engaged in aerial fight towards Soviet MiGs. These dogfights, nevertheless, remained shrouded in secrecy, with information shortly categorised and members sworn to secrecy. One of many causes? Fears that making such incidents public would possibly enhance tensions between the 2 superpowers. The identical was additionally true for manned surveillance flights that the US carried out round — and generally over — Soviet territory. The downing of the U-2 spy airplane piloted by Francis Gary Powers in 1960 is the most well-known case, creating main embarrassment for america and stirring worldwide media consideration. However most of these packages remained categorised, and out of the information, for many years.Learn extra: