Putin's mini-coup in the White House has beaten Zelensky to the punch with Trump

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Putin’s mini-coup in the White House has beaten Zelensky to the punch with Trump - The Independent Putin sneaked in a call to the White House before Zelensky arrived in the US, turning Trump back to his side after he drifted towards democracy.

Vladimir Putin has pulled off a mini-coup in the White House, driven a painful wedge into the European Union, and is repairing his reputation as an indicted war criminal – all in one phone call.

In a couple of weeks, he will get the red-carpet treatment again, this time as a guest of Hungary’s Victor Orban, a leading light of the wannabe dictator club, to hold meetings with Donald Trump, no fan of democratic institutions himself.

He will swagger into Europe untroubled by the International Criminal Court indictments against him for war crimes in Ukraine, and as he stands gazing at Budapest’s golden Danube riverfront, he will breathe in the irony of the moment.

“I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and it was a very productive one,” Trump said on social media. “President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East.”