Berlin: Late last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin was facing a stark reality. He was on the verge of losing US President Donald Trump, the one Western leader possibly willing to help him get his way in Ukraine and achieve his long-held goal of rupturing the European security order.

After months of trying to get Putin to end the war, Trump had grown tired of ineffectual phone calls and talks and had begun issuing ultimatums. Even worse for Putin, Trump appeared to have patched up his relationship with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, despite an Oval Office blow-up earlier this year that delighted Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday.Credit: AP

It was not clear that Trump would be able or willing to follow through on the threats he had made to put punishing tariffs on nations buying Russian oil, or what real impact such moves would have on Moscow. But Trump’s deadline for Putin to end the war was swiftly approaching, presaging some sort of further rift between the White House and the Kremlin.

So Putin shifted tack ever so slightly.

Despite previous refusals by Russian officials to negotiate over territory in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian leader, during a meeting at the Kremlin last week, left Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, with the impression Russia was now willing to engage in some dealmaking on the question of land.

“We’re going to........

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