Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Fresh possibilities have emerged for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia with a change of power in Washington.
Ukrainian soldiers firing at Russian targets from the front line this month. President Vladimir V. Putin dug in on the battlefield to wait out Western resolve in a longer and more onerous conflict than Moscow had expected. Credit… Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Feb. 24, 2025
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia took the stage in Sochi, Russia, last fall, two days after Donald J. Trump won the U.S. presidential election, and spoke of the dawn of a new world order.
“In a sense,” Mr. Putin said, “the moment of truth is coming.”
It may have already arrived.
After three years of grinding warfare and isolation by the West, a world of new possibilities has opened up for Mr. Putin with a change of power in Washington.
Gone are the statements from the East Room of the White House about the United States standing up to bullies, supporting democracy over autocracy and ensuring freedom will prevail.
Gone, too, is Washington’s united front against Russia with its European allies, many of whom have begun to wonder if the new American administration will protect them against a revanchist Moscow, or even keep troops in Europe at all.
Mr. Trump, having voiced desires to take Greenland, has pursued a rapid rapprochement with the Kremlin, while sidelining shocked European allies and publicly assailing President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Image
A photograph released by Russian state media showing Mr. Putin attending a wreath-laying ceremony in Moscow on Sunday. For years, he has fixated on reversing the influence the United States has gained in Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union. Credit… Sergey Bobylev/Sputnik Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
