It’s been a long seven days, even by Russia-Ukraine standards.Last week at this time, the talk was of Tomahawks. But instead of delivering missiles, Donald Trump instead gave a closed-door earful at the White House to Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Then came talk of a mano a mano U-S-Russia summit in Budapest.Now the tide’s turned again. No summit, instead U-S sanctions on Russia’s top two oil companies, an announcement that’s China and India reviewing their orders of Russian imports… and the price of crude soaring.Why the about-face?And is Vladimir Putin actually feeling the pinch? Ordinary Russians are feeling inflation and shortages.That’s well documented but do the elites of Moscow and Saint Petersburg even know they’re as a war on. We’ll ask about the current mindset there…. and about the reality at the front… as Europe’s bloodiest war in living memory grinds on… along with its steady diet of populist rhetoric and nuclear threats.
