Moscow would have welcomed a second US-Russia summit.
The first, in Alaska, was a diplomatic and political coup for the Kremlin. The red-carpet welcome in Anchorage for President Putin symbolised Russia’s return to the international stage and the West’s failure to isolate Moscow.
Over the last week Russian state media have been savouring the idea of a summit with President Trump in Europe, but without the European Union at the table. Russian commentators portrayed the proposed meeting in Budapest as a slap in the face for Brussels.
At the same time, few here seemed to believe that, even if it went ahead, the Budapest summit would produce the kind of result Moscow wanted.
Some Russian newspapers have been calling for the Russian army to continue fighting.
“There isn’t a single reason Moscow should agree to a ceasefire,” declared Moskovsky Komsomolets yesterday.
That doesn’t mean the Kremlin doesn’t want peace.
It does. But only on its terms. And right now those are unacceptable to Kyiv and, it would appear, to Washington.
Those terms involve more than just territory. Moscow is demanding that what it calls the “root causes” of the Ukraine war be addressed: an all-encompassing phrase with which Russia broaden its demands to include a halt to Nato enlargement eastwards.
Moscow is also widely believed to retain the goal of forcing Ukraine back into Russia’s orbit.
Is Donald Trump ready to increase the pressure on Russia even more?
Possibly.
But it’s also possible we may wake up one morning and find ourselves back in Groundhog Day.
“In the game of Trump tug-of-war, Russia is leading again,” wrote Moskovsky Komsomolets after the Budapest summit had been announced.
“In the couple of weeks before the meeting in Budapest, Trump will be pulled in the opposite direction by telephone calls and visits from Europe. Then Putin will pull him back to our side again.”