Being Putin's stooge won't win Trump a peace prize. The Order of Lenin, though, is in the bag

The strange warmth between the leaders has sent a chill globally at the prospect of a troika of authoritarian states

- Simon Tisdall

Donald Trump's sinister affinity for Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has long been the subject of intense speculation. Former KGB officers claim Trump was recruited in Moscow in 1987 and cultivated as an asset in the years prior to his 2016 US election victory.

Two retired Russian spies weighed in again last month, alleging that the then 40-year-old Trump, codename "Krasnov", was personally compromised in an "active measures" operation and has secretly danced to Putin's tune ever since.

Nothing is proved and all is denied. Yet the so-called Steele dossier, compiled by a British MI6 ex-spy chief, the FBI's Mueller report, and US intelligence agencies all agree there were "multiple, systematic" Russian efforts to swing the 2016 vote to Trump. Candidate Trump praised Putin at the time as a "strong leader" while claiming never to have met him. Previously, he said he had.

He's less coy now. Their phone call on 12 February lasted 90 minutes - and changed the world.

What did Putin say? It must have been persuasive. Since then, Trump has been falling over himself to please and appease the Kremlin's dictator. He has suspended US military aid and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, pilloried and plotted to oust its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and demanded a "peace deal" on Russia's unjust terms. Meanwhile, the wider ramifications of Trump's sellout carry huge negative implications for Europe and western interests in China, the Middle East and Africa.