Whoever talks about Russia in Washington cannot remain silent about Donald Trump.

The former president has spouted plenty of outrageous nonsense in recent weeks.

But when you look at it soberly, he was right about one thing: Vladimir Putin perceived Joe Biden as weak.

The Russian President took a good look at the American debacle in Afghanistan and also at the almost obsessive fixation on China.

He saw both as an opportunity.

But he underestimated the American president.

Biden and his security cabinet have now managed to get the West behind them: he has prepared an impressive sanctions regime that includes almost all major financial centers.

He has proven what his intelligence services are capable of - exposing Putin's lies.

And now that Russia has launched the war against Ukraine, he is reacting calmly to its nuclear threats: he did not follow suit when the Kremlin ruler announced that he would prepare his nuclear power for combat.

And he canceled a routine missile test so as not to give Putin an excuse for further escalation.

Trump as Putin's useful idiot

Biden has also given new strength to NATO, which Emmanuel Macron had recently – under Trump – certified as brain dead, and patiently encouraged the willingness of Europeans to finally take on more responsibility.

In retrospect, it is wise that Biden refrained from imposing the sanctions on Nord Stream 2 that Congress had called for in the summer.

He did so even though he considered the gas pipeline a serious geopolitical mistake, simply because he didn't want to alienate the German ally.

Now Berlin hasn't just given up on the pipeline - whether it's out of inner insight or in the certainty that sanctions can no longer be stopped after Putin's attack is secondary.

But Biden received even more: Germany also committed to NATO's two percent target.

No wonder German politicians are getting a pat on the back in Washington these days.

Putin wanted to split the West.

He thought he could set the wedge in Germany.

He has now achieved the opposite of what he wanted.

This also applies to America itself. As expected, Trump turned out to be a useful idiot with his talk about the “brilliant” Putin.

Putin and Trump have miscalculated here too.

Political polarization is certainly not a thing of the past in the United States.

But the threat from Moscow - as such the attack on Ukraine is seen across camps - is pulling the country together, apart from the hard core, isolationist Trump movement.

The Kremlin will have watched closely as Congress rallied behind Biden on the State of the Union address.

The picture may have surprised Putin just as unpleasantly as the applause that Volodymyr Zelenskyy received from the European Parliament.

For the former KGB man, propaganda and disinformation are normal political tools.

He failed with both, no matter how the war ended militarily.

For Biden, being able to show leadership during a weak phase of his presidency is a collateral benefit, so to speak.

He certainly wasn't looking for the opportunity.

His hands are tied towards Ukraine.

A military intervention would not only have consequences for which he was not responsible.

Tragically, Ukrainians are alone in this struggle.

The West can provide humanitarian aid, deliver weapons and send intelligence information to Kyiv.

Not more.

Biden is finding it one thing to lay out grand geopolitical roadmaps for his presidency.

And another to deal with reality.

He wanted to end the anti-terror wars, essentially leave Russia to the Europeans and devote himself to the challenge of the 21st century: China, the actual authoritarian antipode.

But now he sees himself thrown back into the 20th century, which just doesn't want to end.

Can Beijing secretly triumph as Washington's resources are now tied up in an old conflict?

That's too one-dimensional: China can't be right about reinventing the West.

And unlike Putin, Xi Jinping cares about his reputation in the world.

If Biden's people succeed in persuading Beijing to give in in the manner of Henry Kissinger, international politics, which threatens to drift back into chaos, could be transferred to a new coordinate system.

But that's still wishful thinking.