About this episode
After a tense meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, relations between the US, Ukraine, and European allies seem to have reached a new low. Meanwhile, ties between the White House and the Kremlin appear to be warmer than they have been in decades. President Trump has publicly praised his close relationship with Vladimir Putin, fuelling speculation about whether this move signals a new direction in diplomacy or if there is a strategic calculation behind Washington’s pivot to Moscow. Sumi Somaskanda discusses the Trump-Putin dynamic with the BBC's State Department correspondent Tom Bateman, and Vitaly Shevchenko from BBC Monitoring. (Photo: Composite image of Donald Trump, Credit: Nathan Howard/Reuters, and Vladimir Putin, Credit: Sergey Bobylev/Reuters) Producers: Richard Moran and Tom Kavanagh Sound engineer: Dafydd Evans Assistant editor: Sergi Forcada Freixas Senior news editor: China Collins