Anonymous wrote:Well at least the Russians are thrilled. They’ve gone from being international pariahs to having the American leader groveling before them.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a master of diplomatic verbosity and sardonic barbs, summed up the results of the Helsinki summit in just three exuberant words: "better than super."
After four years of getting short shrift by his American counterparts, Russian President Vladimir Putin was standing side by side with President Trump, who lavished him with the words of praise, respect and awe normally only heard on Russian state television.
When Putin militarily intervened in Ukraine in 2014, President Barack Obama called Russia a "regional power" that threatened its neighbors out of weakness, not strength. Russia's annexation of Crimea set off a precipitous decline in relations with the United States. When he took office, Trump could not reverse the trend because of accusations that Moscow interfered in the 2016 election.
And then, without any change in Kremlin policy, Trump agreed to sit down one-on-one with Putin.
"The summit was yet another small miracle created by Trump," columnist Edward Lozansky wrote in the newspaper Izvestia. "As much as they tried to humiliate Trump or give him unsolicited advice, the American president disdainfully brushed aside his enemies and confidently strode to his goal."