Don may be dodgy but he is no match for master of deception trained by KGB

DONALD Trump meeting Vladimir Putin in private in the hope of ending the Ukraine war is not a peace summit, it's a live experiment in how quickly one man can be folded into diplomatic origami.

- BY CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

On one side, we have the Russian despot: Ex-KGB, trained in psychological warfare, fluent in deception, with decades of experience manipulating world leaders and spotting weakness like a hawk spots prey.

On the other side, wannabe dictator Trump: Once described by a former professor as “the worst student I ever had”, a man whose foreign policy strategy begins and ends with winging it and whose negotiating style leans heavily on instinct, self-congratulation and the hope no one is taking notes.

The world would do well to remember history. In Helsinki, 2018, Trump emerged from his meeting with Putin looking like a man who'd just been hypnotised by a snake oil salesman.

Asked whether he accepted US intelligence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, he replied: “President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be.”