The meeting in Saudi Arabia between senior delegations from the United States and Russia could be the first step towards an end to the war in Ukraine – and not just an end to the war. In almost five hours of talks, US and Russian representatives reportedly agreed to work on both a peace settlement and to explore economic and investment opportunities that could result from it.
Whatever the final outcome, Ukraine seems set to lose out.
The same cannot be said of the long-term occupant of the Kremlin. For 20 years, Vladimir Putin has been working towards what Donald Trump has now given him. Ever since Putin bemoaned the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, his foreign policy has been about getting back at least some of the superpower status the Soviet Union enjoyed.
