In his column “Trump’s U-Turn” for Vot Tak, Vitaly Portnikov offers a searing analysis of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. His argument is clear: the encounter demonstrated not strength or diplomacy, but a collapse of Western unity and another successful manipulation by the Kremlin. Reading Portnikov, one is struck not only by the sharpness of his critique, but by the accuracy with which he dissects Trump’s political weaknesses.