Those who predicted that Trump was serious — this time would be different from all of those other times; this time Putin had gone too far and earned the American president’s contempt — were predictably wrong. NBC News reported:

Just when Ukraine and its European allies thought President Donald Trump was coming round to their view of the war, he appeared to give a huge win to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. For Kyiv, this was Trump’s deadline to Putin: stop the fighting by Friday or face tough new economic sanctions. Instead, Trump has handed Moscow a diplomatic coup by agreeing to meet Putin face-to-face in a matter of days, their first encounter since the invasion of Ukraine.

Complicating matters further, the Republican announced that he was welcoming Putin to American soil — the two are now scheduled to meet in Alaska on Friday — handing Moscow a related diplomatic coup. (Because the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of war crimes involving the abduction of Ukrainian children, the Russian dictator generally hasn’t been able to travel outside of his own country. The American president nevertheless invited him to the U.S.)....

But wait, there’s more. Trump not only abandoned his own sanctions deadline (again), not only invited Putin onto American soil in exchange for nothing, and not only gave an international pariah the legitimacy he craves, he also took some time at a White House event on Friday to assure the world that Putin “wants to see peace.”.....

That’s understandable: As an analysis in The New York Times explained, the American president has given his Russian counterpart Putin’s “ideal summit,” without having to do much of anything.

Sam Greene, a professor of Russian politics at Kings College London, told the Times, “It has been a very good week for Putin.” There’s ample evidence to bolster the point, though I’d add that with Trump in the White House, it’s been a very good seven months for Putin, too.