What’s next for a diminished but still dangerous Putin?

Zelenskyy and his fellow Ukrainians have undermined Putin’s credibility and given western Europe time to begin arming to address the threat of an expansionist Russia.

United States President Donald Trump, the only leader with the power to force the Kremlin to change its position, has shown an almost complete moral vacuity toward Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal attack on a sovereign country and its people, writes Les Whittington.Official White House photograph by Shealah Craighead

Opinion

BY LES WHITTINGTON

June 17, 2026

OTTAWA—Photos of St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city, showed a huge cloud of oily smoke snaking into the sky on a day when Russian President Vladimir Putin was holding his much-touted annual economic conference there in early June.

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