“Congratulations/commiserations on being on the Russians sanctions list,” read the text message from a colleague. That was how I found out that I am now on the Kremlin’s enemies list — banned from entering Russia.

The realisation that I might have made my last visit to the country made me think back to my first trip in 1987. It feels like Russia has come full circle — back to the autocracy, aggression and isolation that defined the Soviet era.

In 1987, the Soviet Union was in its dying days — although we didn’t know it at the time. I was in Moscow to cover the arms talks between the US and the USSR. The big story for the local correspondents was the opening of the first private restaurants in the country. Things were changing and that was reflected in the almost playful manner of Gennadi Gerasimov, the Soviet spokesman at the time.