Russia spent years loathing the U.S. as its economy paid a high price for the war — now, it’s doing a U-turn
Russian President Vladimir Putin during a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018. Jussi Nukari | Lehtikuva | Reuters Since invading Ukraine three years ago, Russia has spent a significant amount of energy demonizing the U.S. and denigrating its leadership, economy and culture — and what it saw as Washington’s “hegemony” in the global world order. U.S.-led international sanctions prompted more vitriol from Moscow, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials slamming the almost continuous slew of punitive restrictions on key sectors of the Russian economy and its elite , as the war continued. But the arrival of a friendlier administration under President Donald Trump and fledgling talks with the U.S. to end the conflict in Ukraine — as well as a way back in from the economic and geopolitical cold — are prompting a U-turn in Moscow, with the Kremlin dramatically softening th...