Tension between the United States and Ukraine, laid bare in the Oval Office meeting of Trump and Zelensky, is seen in Moscow as a “gift.”

A New York Times report Wednesday night laid out the case that President Donald Trump's first month in office bears some resemblance to the early days of Russian President Vladimir Putin — but one journalist who fled Russia flagged a "hell of a difference" between the two,

A new administration’s efforts to pressure the news media, punish political opponents and tame the nation’s tycoons evoke the early days of President Vladimir V. Putin’s reign in Russia.

Vance’s Munich speech matched many of the issues long promoted by Russia including anti-migrant rhetoric, curbing abortion and equating “cancel culture” with free speech infringement.

President Trump’s abrupt and enthusiastic embrace of Russia and its authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin, is propelled in part by a strategic desire to drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing, two powers that have long sought to end U.

Trump called Ukraine’s president a dictator, then pretended never to have called him any such thing. Because it’s never too soon to rewrite history. From Melinda Hennebeger:

After secretly helping Trump's last three presidential campaigns, Russia is getting its money's worth from him.