Putin fawns over Trump as ‘light at the end of tunnel’

Russian president Vladimir Putin praised Donald Trump as “the light at the end of the tunnel” for struggling relations between Russia and the United States. Speaking on Friday (22 August), Putin said: "[Relations] hey are at an extremely low level since World War II. “But with the arrival of President Trump, I think that a light at the end of the tunnel has finally appeared.” Putin also commended Mr Trump’s leadership qualities and added that Russian companies were already discussing plans with “American partners” on opportunities for cooperation across the Arctic and in Alaska in areas such as liquified natural gas. The comments came the same day as Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said there were no plans for a meeting between Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky – a proposal that Mr Trump has repeatedly floated to end the three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine.