“It was a good day for Russia,” US President Donald Trump commented in 2021, mocking his predecessor Joe Biden after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.
He was, arguably, not wrong, as the meeting indeed “gave a very big stage” to Putin’s embattled regime, as Trump put it, although it helped the Biden administration stabilise ties with Moscow before it moved to focus on its rivalry with Beijing.
After going around Ukraine and Europe to open direct peace talks with Moscow in Saudi Arabia last week, the Trump administration shocked the world again by voting with Russia against Ukraine at the United Nations on Monday.