Vladimir Putin's PR Victory

There was nothing normal about the July 7 meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Hamburg. The mere scheduling of this friendly chat handed Putin a PR victory, which the Kremlin-controlled media exploited gleefully. Not only was the Russian dictator not isolated or under pressure for invading Ukraine, enabling Bashar al-Assad's genocide in Syria, and interfering in the U.S. presidential election, but the American president announced that it was an honor to meet with him.Putin hardly needs encouragement to pursue further hostile acts. As fashionable as it may be to blame everything to do with Russia on Trump, the above-listed crimes all took place during the presidency of Barack Obama. Putin likely would not recognize deterrence if he saw it. Yet replacing Obama's worthless red lines with Trump's red carpet only fuels the Russian threat to the world order.