Sky News had to grit its teeth to report another Putin comeback with Trump:

[https://news.sky.com/story/putin-s-strategic-outreach-to-trump-seeks-to-temper-us-support-for-ukraine-13451373]

Putin set to return to EU soil for first time since war began - and you can already see his smile

How does Putin do it? His tactic seems to be the same each time - offer Trump something he can present as a breakthrough, and serve it with lashings of bald-faced flattery.

Sky should simply admit that Putin just does this better than anyone else and certainly a lot better than Macron, Merz, Starmer and Von Der Leyen who couldn't pass an O' level in flattery, let alone international statesmanship.

Putin is much like the stellar Kazakh boxer Triple G (Gennady Golovkin). He may not look like much and is easy to poke fun at pre-fight but when he steps in the ring and throws a few punches his opponents soon find out what they are dealing with and wish they hadn't made light of his skills - when they wake up that is.

Naturally, many people will be hoping that Budapest will lead to nothing and the coalition of the willing can continue to will for someone, anyone to do something about ending the war.