It has been a long seven days — even by Russia-Ukraine standards.

Last week at this time, the talk was of Tomahawk cruise missiles. But instead of delivering missiles, Donald Trump gave a closed-door earful at the White House to Volodymyr Zelensky. Then came talk of a mano à mano U.S.–Russia summit in Budapest.

 

Now the tide has turned again. No summit—just U.S. sanctions on Russia’s top two oil companies, an announcement coinciding with China and India reviewing their orders of Russian imports and the price of crude is soaring.

Why the sudden about-face?

And is Vladimir Putin actually feeling the pinch? Ordinary Russians are grappling with inflation and shortages, a well-documented reality. But do the elites of Moscow and Saint Petersburg even realize they are under economic pressure? We’ll ask about the current mindset there.

Finally, on the frontlines, Europe’s bloodiest war in living memory continues to grind on, accompanied by a steady stream of populist rhetoric and nuclear threats.

 

 

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Ilayda Habip and Daniel Whittington