Kyiv, Ukraine – The Alaska summit between United States President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was a masterclass in how a former intelligence officer uses his skills of manipulation on a self-centred narcissist.

That’s the impression Ukrainian analyst Maria Kucherenko got when watching the interaction between Trump and Putin during their summit on Friday, which broke no ground in stopping Europe’s hottest war since 1945.

Putin “worked [Trump] well”, the analyst with Come Back Alive, a Kyiv-based charity, told Al Jazeera, referring to the years Putin spent as a Soviet spy in East Germany recruiting informants.

On the tarmac at Elmendorf-Richardson, a Cold War-era airbase outside Alaska’s capital, Anchorage, Putin greeted Trump with a “good morning, dear ne

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