Alaska was a start, but Putin is still up to his old tricks

As the people of Ukraine know, neighborliness is not among Putin’s great qualities.

Still, it was with a reference to the US and Russia being neighbors that Putin kicked off his conversation with President Trump in Alaska yesterday.

On the red carpet at the airport he apparently said to Trump: “Good afternoon, dear neighbor. Very good to see you in good health and to see you alive.” 6

When relaying this at the joint press conference later on, the Russian president commented about his own earlier remarks: “I think that is very neighborly.”

Of course the two leaders were only meeting because of Putin’s lack of neighborly qualities.

Since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 there have been no face-to-face meetings between the leaders of Russia and the US.

Partly beca