Those who believed US-Russian tensions had been put to rest have had a rough awakening

Vladimir Putin’s piece this week, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, starts gently enough, writes Oliver Carroll

US president Joe Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin pictured during the US-Russia summit in Geneva (Getty)

Those who believed US-Russian tensions had been put to rest when Biden and Putin last week agreed on, well, not very much, were given a rough awakening this week with a long-trailed article in Die Zeit on the Second World War. And the incident in the Black Sea over the UK warship HMS Defender will not have helped matters.

Vladimir Putin’s piece, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, starts gently enough.

The Soviets suffered huge losses, he notes, but fought back to arrive in Berlin with “noble intentions”. This set the stage for cooperation. After the end of the Cold War, a new pact “from Lisbon to Vladivostok” seemed within reach.