FROM THE moment he stepped off his plane onto the red-carpeted tarmac, the summit in Alaska was a triumph for Vladimir Putin. He was greeted with applause from his host, Donald Trump. The two men may have had nothing to announce after hours of talks—the first meeting between a Russian and American president since the invasion of Ukraine—but the encounter at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage transformed Mr Putin from a pariah of the West into an honoured guest on American soil.

The talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska have ended, the Kremlin said. Trump and Putin's high-stakes summit over Moscow's war in Ukraine had stretched into its third hour on Friday,