Will Vladimir Putin Be My Friend?
By Donald Trump asked that a long time ago, and he seems to have thought, at least for public consumption, that a person he admired so much might befriend him. And it looked like Vladimir Putin played Trump to think so.
But Putin was not engaged in a shooting war against the West at that time. Now he is.
Last week, Olaf Scholz, Germany’s probable lame duck Chancellor, spoke to Putin on the phone, the first Western leader to do so in some time. Overnight US time, Russia unleashed one of its heaviest attacks on Ukraine.
To congratulate Trump on his electoral win, Russia displayed Melania’s nude photos on television, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied a phonecall Trump had claimed, and his aide Nikolai Patrushev said that Trump owes Russia for his victory.
Trump’s other dictator love interest, Kim Jong Un, is supplying soldiers and equipment to Putin’s war.
I don’t think there will be love letters this time around.
Update: President Biden has authorized the use of US-supplied missiles against Russians on Russian ground. (gift link) The article has several unclear statements of what limitations, if any, continue, like this one:
The officials said that while the Ukrainians were likely to use the missiles first against Russian and North Korean troops that threaten Ukrainian forces in Kursk, Mr. Biden could authorize them to use the weapons elsewhere.
In other places, it sounds like all limitations have been lifted. I guess we’ll see.