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Imagine the scene at Moscow’s annual Victory Day parade one year from now. As the strains of the “Preobrazhensky March” echo across Red Square, a detachment of U.S. Marines enter the parade, their polished boots reflecting the early May sunshine. At the center of the rostrum atop Lenin’s mausoleum, Russian President Vladimir Putin turns and embraces the American guest of honor standing next to him. U.S. President Donald Trump is beaming: Finally, a proper parade and a proper welcome from a proper leader.

The dream of a U.S.-Russian rapprochement is never far from Trump’s thoughts. He has repeatedly praised the Russian leader as a “genius,” “smart,” and “savvy.” Those friendly words are echoed in Moscow, where Putin has called Trump “brave” and “hounded from all sides” by the U.S. “deep state” during his first term.

Imagine the scene at Moscow’s annual Victory Day parade one year from now. As the strains of the “Preobrazhensky March” echo across Red Square, a detachment of U.S. Marines enter the parade, their polished boots reflecting the early May sunshine. At the center of the rostrum atop Lenin’s mausoleum, Russian President Vladimir Putin turns and embraces the American guest of honor standing next to him. U.S. President Donald Trump is beaming: Finally, a proper parade and a proper welcome from a proper leader.

The dream of a U.S.-Russian rapprochement is never far from Trump’s thoughts. He has repeatedly praised the Russian leader as a “genius,” “smart,” and “savvy.” Those friendly words are echoed in Moscow, where Putin has called Trump “brave” and “hounded from all sides” by the U.S. “deep state” during his first term.

Trump’s fondness for Putin may reflect admiration of the Russian leader’s strongman style. Putin has—at least in some eyes—made Russia great again, taking over a disintegrating, traumatized, marginalized country in 1999, seizing all the levers of power, and turning it into a formidable force in world politics. Trump may also see some attractions in the way in which the Russian system treats political power and wealth as fungible. The people running Russia, notably the Putin family, get extremely rich. The richest people in Russia are at a minimum exempt from legal constraint and scrutiny. Some of them actually run the country. What’s not to like?

But the attraction also stems from self-interest. One shared irritation........

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