Putin’s Two-Year Countdown Clock Starts Now

Newsweek · David Averre · 2026-11-05 15:03 UTC

The Kremlin has never needed Congress to get Trump's attention; its deals with the president and his handpicked inner circle.

Donald Trump has lost Congress, and the Democrats who swept both chambers on Tuesday have every incentive to make his remaining two years in the Oval Office miserable.

Vladimir Putin won’t be losing any sleep over it. The Kremlin has never needed Congress to get Trump's attention; its dealings with Washington go via the president and a handful of his trusted advisers, and a Trump frustrated at home might be especially receptive to the promise of a grand diplomatic triumph abroad.

But whatever Moscow hopes to extract from the White House, it has just over two years to collect.

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