Vladimir Images

White House envoy Steve Witkoff did some serious bonding during his quality time with Vladimir Putin. “I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me … I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it.” He also was moved when Putin told him that, after Trump was shot, “he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president.” As Anne Applebaum explains: “If you ever wondered how the KGB manipulated foreigners and got them to repeat Soviet propaganda, spend some time listening to Steve Witkoff talk about his wonderful conversations with Vladimir Putin.”

+ Andreas Kluth in Bloomberg (Gift Article): Russia and the US Both Want to Finlandize the World. Russia and the US Both Want to Finlandize the World. “Finlandization is about weaker countries having to cede sovereignty to appease stronger bullies, such as Russia and, now, the US.”

+ Greenland’s prime minister slams ‘highly aggressive’ visit by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance. (Maybe Putin will pray for Greenland, too.)