David Frum

How big a win is that for Putin?

Well, let's look at the Ukraine map from his point of view.

The war as a military matter has gone catastrophically badly for him.

It's now, as I am told, a conflict, at least the post-February 22 conflict has now lasted longer than the Soviet involvement in World War II.

They started late, of course.

And the toll in life and money is overwhelming.

But he is maintaining his position on the ground, and he's got an American administration that seems to conceptualize a peace treaty as finding out what Putin wants and giving it to him at the expense of the Ukrainians.

I think of Prince Farquaad and Shrek.

Some of you may die, but that is a price that I am willing to pay.

How bad is the news for him from Venezuela and from Iran?

And he's got, once again, the help of his friend, the president of the United States, who in both countries, Venezuela and Iran, really seems to have betrayed any ideal of democracy.

In Venezuela, he seems to have made it very clear that he wants the next thug in line.

This is not regime change.

It's dictator rotation.

In Iran, the president promised the Iranian people that help was on the way.

As you and I speak, that promise seems to have been utterly empty and not honored.

And people have died in the thousands and maybe the tens of thousands.

believing the word of the United States, a mistake.

It's such a shame and a sorrow even to think about that the word of an American president could be so worthless, but there it is.

So Putin is going to get maybe some second bests, thanks to Donald Trump.