The Putin and Trump interplay is also a contest for the upper hand – or as Lenin neatly put it of such things, “kto kovo” (who gets the better of whom?).The terms of the duo’s dealings remain mysterious.

The Russian general died in a car bombing in the Russian city of Balashikha on Friday, according to authorities, with news of the blast breaking just before US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow.