Putin has received yet another gift from Trump
Fiona Hill, then a White House expert on Russian affairs, was so unnerved by Mr Trump's remarks at the joint press conference that she 'looked around to see if there was a fire alarm' to bring the 'terrible spectacle' to a sudden close.
American officials might want to check out the fire alarms of the Alaskan venue where Mr Trump and Putin will meet on Aug 15, particularly as the stakes for this summit will be infinitely greater than they were at Helsinki in 2018.
Back then, the two leaders had to deal with civil war in Syria and Russian interference in the US election in 2016. It was Mr Trump's public dismissal of own intelligence agencies' verdict on the latter subject that caused Ms Hill to consider halting an occasion that was 'mortifying' and 'humiliating for the country'.
This time, the two presidents will be discussing Europe's bloodiest war since 1945 and if Putin can repeat the trick of making at least one American official feel mortified, he will be satisfied.
Mr Trump has already given him plenty of reasons to feel even more pleased with himself than usual. Last week was supposed to be the moment when the president finally got tough and all of his exasperated outbursts about his Russian counterpart – 'crazy', 'disgusting', 'talking b-------' – would lead America to suffocate the Kremlin's revenues by enacting secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian oil.
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