Turning the tap Could sanctions succeed where diplomacy has failed on Russia?

For once, a phone call with Vladimir Putin did not lead to a thaw. By imposing sanctions on Russia, Donald Trump broke from his usual pattern of easing tensions with the Kremlin after conversations with the Russian leader, when threats of pressure often give way to talk of renewed dialogue.

- By Pjotr Sauer

As Washington flirted with the idea of supplying Ukraine with powerful Tomahawk missiles, Putin and Trump spoke last week. Both sides announced plans for a US-Russia summit in Budapest, and Tomahawks were left off the table.

Putin’s well-timed calls to Trump became so obviously calculated that they were met with amusement.

“Putin, who appears to be running a kind of personal tactical game with Trump, has a knack, it must be said, for picking just the right moments to undercut our opponents’ efforts and inject new momentum into the talks,” wrote Fyodor Lukyanov, a foreign policy analyst close to the Kremlin, in the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.

“The ‘target’ is responding to those signals ... We are stuck in a loop.” But Groundhog Day seems to be over. Trump lost patience after talks between his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, made clear that Moscow saw no room for compromise on its stance in Ukraine. Last Wednesday, Trump vented his frustration with the Russian president, announcing that the Budapest summit was shelved. “Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations and then they don’t go anywhere,” Trump told reporters in the White House.