They have been circling each other carefully for seven days now – sending out invitations to talk, mixing a few jabs with ego-stroking, suggesting that the only way to end the Ukraine war is for the two of them to meet, presumably without the Ukrainians.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose relationship was always the subject of mystery and psychodrama in the first Trump term, are at it again. But it is not a simple rerun. Trump was unusually harsh in his rhetoric last week. He said Putin was “destroying Russia” and threatened sanctions and tariffs against the country if it didn’t come to the negotiating table – a fairly empty threat given the tiny amount of trade between the United States and Russia these days.