The Russian president struck a lucrative diesel deal with President Donald Trump and secured a limited relaxation of U.S. sanctions, all while restrictions on Elon Musk's Starlink and Starshield satellite communications temporarily hobbled some of Ukraine's most effective drone strike operations. He even had time to celebrate his birthday. But his diplomatic gains haven't come from nowhere; the Kremlin has been pursuing a strategy so calculated it could have been lifted from a manual entitled How to Train Your Trump.
That Moscow is working overtime to influence the White House should come as no surprise. In July, spokesman Dmitry Peskov openly stated that Russia must exploit the "dualism" of a U.S. administration that simultaneously arms Ukraine but ultimately seeks peace. The efficacy of its strategy, however, should be a serious cause for concern.
Putin's playbook for getting what he wants from the White House can be boiled down to three simple steps. Begin with the basics: tell the target what he wants to hear. Assure him he is exceptionally wise, uniquely respected, and perhaps the only man alive capable of fixing the problem.
Take every opportunity to pay him a compliment or criticize those who criticize him. This approach need not be limited to the American president. It can be applied to any influential figure whose ego requires regular polishing.
Flattery is cheap; it demands nothing beyond words, but empty platitudes can carry remarkable psychological power. Putin began laying the groundwork before Trump had even started his second term. Two days after Trump's November 2024 election victory, Putin declared his admiration for America's once-and-future president, describing his raised fist in response to an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally as the behavior of a "real man." "He proved himself, in my opinion, in the right way.
Courageously, like a man," the Russian president said, before taking a jab at Trump's opponents who dismissed him as a businessman with no place in politics. Putin ramped up the sickly sweet rhetoric upon Trump's return to the Oval Office in January 2025, casting his decision to invade Ukraine as an unfortunate consequence of America's failure to deliver Donald a second consecutive term. "I cannot disagree with him in that if he'd been president, if he hadn't had his victory stolen in 2020, then perhaps there would have never been the crisis in Ukraine that erupted in 2022." Months later, in October, he capitalized on the Nobel Peace Prize's decision to overlook the U.S. president's work on the Gaza ceasefire in favor of Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado.
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