Putin’s Still In Charge

Putin, exuding confidence, got out ahead of Trump just minutes after the call and talked in person to the media, which allowed him the first move in framing the discussion. (Today’s Russian autocrats understand public relations far better than their dour Soviet predecessors.) Putin’s quick personal readout of the call was a perfect nothingburger:

I speak Russian, but no translator is needed here: This is the universal language of political stalling. “Russia will propose” means “We’ll drag our feet and then whip up an unacceptable set of talking points.” “Ready to work on a memorandum” means “We’ll agree in principle to talk about talking about stuff.” “Defining a number of positions” means “We’ll come up with a list of nonstarter conditions.” And “the timing of a possible peace agreement” means “We’ll set up some unattainable schedule date for a cease-fire and then scuttle it.”

The official account of Putin’s remarks, released later by the Russian news service TASS, was even less conciliatory, pointedly excluding the reference to agreeing with the American president. But none of it matters: Trump spent more than two hours on the phone with Putin, and he got exactly nothing.