CNN
—
Russia gets a small win, Ukraine gets a slight reprieve yet is still angrily outside the room and Europe is suddenly relevant again.
The US-Russia talks that just concluded in Riyadh have broadly given Moscow the most to be pleased about. It has long (incorrectly) portrayed the war in Ukraine as a NATO assault on Russia, and this bilateral meeting helps perpetuate that false idea.
Moscow is getting real, practical results too. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the respective American and Russian embassies would return to a more functional level of staffing, after significant tit-for-tat expulsions which began when Russia used a weapons-grade…
