I’d be the first to admit that the allegations about Donald Trump swirling around the web are both intriguing and repellent at the same time, as good a working definition of prurience as any. Not just the details, I mean, but the journalism involved. We’re all guilty, whether we wish to admit it or not, of a greater or lesser degree of unhealthy fascination with the private lives of the rich and powerful, and especially if there is some genuine public interest tied up in it all somewhere. This would appear to be the case here, at least as an allegation, because the suggestion is that Trump is somehow beholden to the Russians, and that, so the speculation runs, explains why he has been so “soft” on them.

If only it were that simple. If only the allegations could be proven or disproven, one way or another. If only, further, it could be proven that the allegations actually altered Trump’s policies on anything. None of that has emerged. I doubt that will happen soon, if ever. The thought also crosses one’s mind that western intelligence agencies may have some “dirt” on Putin. In which case there is a sort of personal state of “mutually assured destruction” between the two men, something not witnessed in global geopolitics before. Who knows? There is no corroboration for any of it. That is why the story is so intriguing, but the publication rather repellent.

Meantime the world should try and calm down a bit, and concentrate on the realities. And those are that Trump really is going to become president next Friday, he will be running the world’s most mighty military power and, still, its largest economy. He will be the leader of the free world, whatever he may or may not have gotten up to in a hotel room in his day (indeed, relatively few inhabitants of the White House can be said to have been saintly). He will be forging a new kind of friendship with Russia. All that we know for certain; it does not require triple-sourcing.

Trump chief adviser Kellyanne Conway denies compromising claims against President-elect

So, back to work, everyone. The most important single relationship in the world is the one between the presidents of the United States and of the Russian Federation. True or not, it would be tragic if these rumours were to do anything to make that more difficult than it needs to be. I rather suspect that the reason why Trump is “soft” – I use the term his critics use – on Russia is actually that he doesn’t see that Putin is a threat to the United States, or its values for that matter, and never has. It is the crudest of crude power politics, and requires no further explanation, and certainly no elaborate conspiracy theories involving the FSB, prostitutes, real estate deals and former British secret service agents.

Trump and Putin simply agree that Isis is the most virulent of the many diseases afflicting the Middle East’s body politic, and they agree, I am sorry to say, that the best and indeed only way to extirpate this particular evil, with its beheadings and mass rape and torture and cultural vandalism, is to defeat it militarily and take things from there. Collateral damage, in Aleppo but in principle anywhere, is acceptable. That’s about it really. Rather a short dossier, but it doesn’t need to be long to capture the essence of superpower politics in 2017.

If the Russians really have been making cyber mischief on the United States, as Boris Johnson is the latest to claim, then so what? Men of the world know that the Americans and Russians have been spying on each other, and on their respective friends and foes alike, and some mutual ones, for as long as anyone cares to remember. The British invented spycraft in the sixteenth century, and it is nothing new. Who, after all, was listening in to Angela Merkel’s mobile phone all these years? Not the Kremlin (well, not as far as we know).

Indeed I might go further. If Russia and America can work together on North Korea, that would be good for the entire world, and especially the South Koreans and Japanese who have been terrorised by the Kims for so long (and who, I think it is fair to add, have a far more credible claim to possession of weapons of mass destruction than Saddam Hussein ever did). Russia and the US could work together to ensure China’s vaulting ambitions in the South China Sea are tempered and don’t prove an additional threat to peace in that region.

It is possible – it is akin to multi-dimensional chess – that the US and Russia could exercise joint influence to resolve long-standing problems in the Middle East, maybe in some grand carve-up of influence and resources. Look, for example, at how Russia defused its antagonism to Turkey. I am not in favour of the US rolling over and allowing the Russians to do whatever they like in Ukraine or the Baltic states, if that is the price of US-Russian harmony. However, if it is true that America will not fight the Russians over these interests, in effect abandoning Nato and resetting US policy to its pre-1941 stance, then Europe itself needs to take care of its own defence, and put up a credible show of resistance and deterrence against the Russians if Trump’s America cannot be relied upon. Whatever happens to the EU, it is in no one’s interests in Europe for Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, let alone the likes of Poland, Romania or Bulgaria, to feel as though they are being pushed into some reborn Russian “sphere of influence”. It has happened before, the legacy left by the strangely pally relationship between Franklin Roosevelt and Josef Stalin, so there are some unfortunate precedents there that many in Washington don’t like to reflect on.

President Donald Trump life in pictures Show all 16 1 /16 President Donald Trump life in pictures President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump poses in a rocking chair once used by President John F. Kennedy at his New York City residence Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump with his new bride Marla Maples after their wedding at the Plaza hotel in New York Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Celina Midelfart watch the match between Conchita Martinez and Amanda Coetzer during U.S. Open. She was the date whom Donald Trump was with when he met his current wife Melania at a party in 1996 Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas serving as the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, speaks to Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on the starting grid at the Daytona International Speedwa Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Developer Donald Trump talks with his former wife Ivana Trump during the men's final at the U.S. Open Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and his friend Melania Knauss pose for photographers as they arrive at the New York premiere of Star Wars Episode : 'The Phantom Menace,' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump talks with host Larry King. Trump told King that he was moving toward a possible bid for the United States presidency with the formation of a presidential exploratory committee Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump answers questions as Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura looks on in Brooklyn Park. Trump said on Friday he 'very well might' make a run for president under the Reform Party banner but had not made a final decision Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump makes a face at a friend as he sits next to Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso before the start of the 2003 Miss Universe pageant in Panama City Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Entrepreneur Donald Trump is greeted by a Marilyn Monroe character look-a-alike, as he arrives at Universal Studios Hollywood to attend the an open casting call for his NBC television network reality series 'The Apprentice.' Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Simon Cowell present an Emmy during the 56th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump and Megan Mullally perform at the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump, poses with his children, son Donald Trump, Jr., and daughters Tiffany and Ivanka Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Billionaire Donald Trump told Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner on Tuesday she would be given a second chance after reported misbehavior Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures Donald Trump holds a replica of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as his wife Melania holds their son Barron in Los Angeles Reuters President Donald Trump life in pictures U.S. property mogul Donald Trump stands next to a bagpiper during a media event on the sand dunes of the Menie estate, the site for Trump's proposed golf resort, near Aberdeen, north east Scotland Reuters

As history shows, intelligence, spying and blackmail, affairs of the heart and the private financial affairs of statesmen and stateswomen, in the end, only have a limited impact on international affairs. It is not to trivialise the important work of intelligence agencies to state the obvious; that America and Russia have interests in common, and with leaders who respect one another (and even if they don’t) they will therefore be pushed closer by the pursuit of those common interests.