In a round of Trump's applause, smiling Putin got everything he wanted

Telegraph

a day ago

As Vladimir Putin's aircraft landed in Alaska, a heavy burden weighed upon his narrow shoulders.
Not only – as Donald Trump pointed out on Air Force One – have more than 7,000 lives been lost at the front in the last week alone, but the strain of the war and international sanctions has been taking its toll on the Russian economy.
Oil revenues have plummeted, while the budget deficit has soared to its highest level in more than 30 years. Inflation and interest rates are eye-watering. There's surely only so long the Russian despot can juggle his economy, the demands of his military and patching up the cracks before the nosedive.
This looming economic crisis provided the backdrop to the Alaska summit, which was prompted by threats of new American oil sanctions. Putin has reportedly insisted that sanctions relief forms part of any deal struck in Alaska, which is nothing if not a display of weakness.
Not that you'd know it from looking at him. The tyrant looked stiff and bloated, but beamed as he shook his opposite number warmly by the hand.
There was none of Trump's trademark grab-and-yank. No intimidating body language. Instead, amid the intimate giggles and nudges, Putin looked like the cat that got the cream. Trump even seemed to applaud the Russian leader as he walked along a red carpet. Putin was given a welcome more befitting a friend and ally, not the leader of a rogue state - a victory before the talks had even begun.
I was reminded of the moment Russia was admitted into the G8 in 2002, which Tony Blair notoriously described as 'a very strong message of support for president Putin and his reforms'. Back then, the Russian leader looked hale, vital and satisfied. But he had nothing of the unalloyed delight that lit up his face today.
Small wonder. In the more than two decades since the door was opened to the Russian bear, Putin's trajectory has been one of gradual manipulation of the West, leading to his invasion of Ukraine.
Aleksandr Dugin, the firebrand philosopher nicknamed 'Putin's brain', openly envisions a steroidal Russian empire that will vanquish the West and establish Eurasian supremacy from Vladivostok to Dublin, allying with every enemy of democracy in an inexorable advance.
Today, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is the plan that is unfolding. From a Western point of view, Russia is an isolated and declining power, slowly sinking in a swamp of blood and impoverishment.
Switch the perspective, however, and the global picture looks very different. Europe's economies, birth rates, cultural coherence, and defence readiness are all in a very fragile state indeed, as what Simon Sebag Montefiore calls the 'comfort democracies' continue to eat themselves from within.
On the other side of the equation, the Kremlin's friendship with Beijing and its reach into the Middle East and Africa provide an advancing authoritarian alliance, backed up by the nuclear-armed North Korea.
In the centre of the storm is Donald Trump, the most volatile president in recent American history. This is a man with whom Putin can perhaps do business.
In fact, much of the business may already have been done. Land concessions are on the table, as are Ukraine's natural resources and a number of other sweeteners to persuade Putin to 'stop the killing'.
The underlying message is clear: under Trump's leadership, the West is marshalling wealth and strategic advantage as offerings to appease the Russian war machine, in the hope that it can be flattered into silencing its guns.
No wonder Putin smiled so broadly.
In a sign of both his existing muscle and intentions, Russian forces have been preparing to test a new nuclear-armed cruise missile in the Barents Sea archipelago of Novaya Zemlya.
Alaska Shmalaska. Moscow claims that this new armament has an unlimited range, both geographical and into the future. Slowly but surely, Putin is getting the West where he wants it.