Trump has offended Russia by hanging out with Theresa May and Justin Trudeau but not Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin is feeling excluded. The Russian president is reportedly offended that all he has gotten from President Trump so far is a handful of phone calls, while Trump has hung out with other world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"[The Russian leaders] feel slighted," explained foreign policy analyst Vladimir Frolov to The New York Times. Foreign affairs expert Aleksei Pushkov said: "Trump rejected the idea of holding a separate meeting [with Putin] early due to fear of hysteria by his enemies in the U.S.A."

Leaders in Moscow had believed Trump's election would lead to friendlier relations between the Kremlin and the White House, although the Trump administration has done little to prove that to be true. As recently as this weekend, Trump's national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, publicly scolded Putin on Fox News, saying, "We need changes in words and the nature of the relationship, but what we really need to see is a change in behavior."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"The Russians are basically scratching their heads and asking, 'What are we going to get from this?'" Pushkov said.