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Hello and welcome back to the Americano show where we talk about power, politics and prejudices in

American life. Every week we will talk to at least

one or two or possibly three or four American experts, international experts about American affairs.

And you can also catch us on Spectator TV on YouTube as often as you like.

Please keep listening and watching.

I'm delighted to be joined by Owen Matthews, our Russia correspondent,

who, like me, watched the Trump-Putin summit with some trepidation.

Owen, what were your thoughts?

What were your first thoughts?

Well, it was pretty extraordinary.

I think it was 12 minutes that changed the world, really,

or that shook the world, because Putin got the one thing that he absolutely wanted,

which was an extraordinary, which was essentially a normalization.

If we were talking about the Roshov era, we would call this a rehabilitation, the fact that he has very much sort of come back in from the cold, that to hear

Trump describe him warmly as, you know, Vladimir, my friend, I mean, extraordinary, extraordinary

scenes, actually, the warmth and the normality of the relationship is more between Trump and Putin is more than a reset.

It's almost a vindication and certainly a diplomatic victory of enormous proportions for Putin.

The reaction of the reporters who were in the room,

...