Just a month ago, Trump referred to Putin as someone who wants to end the war, but in July, at a meeting of the US government, he was already talking about the Russian president as someone who constantly spouts nonsense.
What is going on? Why was Trump willing to ignore Putin's mockery and refusal to meet any of his wishes during five consecutive phone calls, only to turn into an angry fury before our very eyes? And this may only be the beginning.
Because Putin made mistakes in his usual style.
On the eve of his sixth conversation with Putin, Trump made a decisive concession to his Russian counterpart: he stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine. Prior to that, Russian financial institutions had been partially exempted from sanctions. Although formally this only concerned the Syrian case, in reality it was a real signal.
Putin should have responded by pretending to be constructive. He should have announced a ceasefire for 48 hours or a week, said he was ready for talks in Istanbul tomorrow, and told Trump he was preparing new proposals to add to his memorandum.
However, Putin decided, for reasons unknown, that he already had Trump in his pocket and no longer needed to imitate anything. He seemed not to notice that Trump was already irritated after the previous two phone calls. Or perhaps he decided that if Trump continued to make concessions even after these two phone calls, his irritation was irrelevant. He miscalculated.
The most interesting thing happened next. Putin ignored both Trump's irritation and the lack of any comment from the White House on the presidents' phone call. Instead, he staged a massive shelling of Ukraine, as if to show off: now anything is possible.
The fact that this shelling began simultaneously with the end of the presidents' telephone conversation – that is, it was planned in advance to coincide with the end of this telephone conversation – became the main irritant for Trump. He could have survived an unsuccessful telephone conversation. But he perceived the shelling immediately after the conversation as a demonstrative sign of disrespect towards himself. After all, he constantly asks Putin not to shell peaceful cities.
The fact that Putin deliberately does this immediately after talking to him is a manifestation of personal disrespect. And personal disrespect is Trump's main complex. This is no longer on a political level, it is on a subconscious level.
And Putin succeeded. He effectively negated months of courtship, compliments, portraits, and all that nonsense. Trump now says that Putin is very polite, but that is completely meaningless.
At the same time, it is impossible to explain to Putin where he went wrong, because Putin did what he always does. What's more, he did what any “proper” person from Russia always does – when they see that they are being treated politely and accommodated, they believe that they need to be knocked down a peg or two so that the client clearly understands how to behave. Therefore, Putin is unlikely to correct anything.
And therefore Putin is unlikely to fix anything. He will tell himself that he has had enough time to use Trump, and now he needs to return to his usual policy of confrontation. Only here he can be wrong. When Putin switched to his usual policy of confrontation with Biden, he was dealing with a traditional politician who calculated the consequences of his every move.
And in the case of Trump, it won't work that way. Putin will now have to deal with an offended child who will defend his dignity and prove that he cannot be trampled on. Because this child is the president of the United States of America.
If Putin does not realize in time that he should reconsider and offer Trump something that demonstrates to the American president that the Russian leader respects him and understands that Trump's wishes should be heeded – well, say, to stop the fighting on the Russian-Ukrainian front – I don't really envy Putin.
So far, the Kremlin is trying to pretend that nothing has happened. Putin is still silent. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ridiculed Trump after he issued his 50-day ultimatum to Russia and its allies who continue economic cooperation with Moscow. Medvedev called Trump's statements a decorative ultimatum and stressed that the American president had disappointed militant Europe.
Indeed, the Russian capital did not pay much attention to the US president's latest statements. Moreover, the Moscow stock exchange rose after Trump concluded his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, at which the relevant statements were made.
However, are Trump's statements really so safe for the Russian leadership? And, is it really appropriate for Medvedev, who has already refuted his statements several times after relevant comments from American and Western politicians, as, by the way, happened with Trump as well, to laugh at the American president? 
Fifty days is indeed a long time, allowing the Russian Federation to continue its offensive against Ukrainian positions without any serious problems, as well as to carry out systematic shelling of Ukrainian cities and towns, destroying Ukraine's military-industrial complex and forcing Ukrainian citizens to consider surrendering to Russia, which Putin continues to count on. But, on the other hand, Trump emphasizes that he will provide Ukraine with new weapons.
These weapons, of course, should deter the Russian offensive, which already seems unrealistic given the position of the Russian armed forces on Ukrainian soil.
The supply of new air defense systems to Ukraine also creates problems for further shelling of Ukrainian territory by Russian invaders. Well, now the Western media emphasize that the United States may allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with ATACMS missiles, which are already in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Thus, numerous military and energy facilities in the Russian Federation could soon catch fire, which, of course, will create additional problems for the Russian economy, which is already exhausted by sanctions and war. 
Of course, one could argue that this economy has survived the most serious sanctions pressure from the West, and now Putin, in alliance with the People's Republic of China, can look confidently to the military future. But the promise of a 100% tariff for countries that continue to buy oil from the Russian Federation does create certain problems for the Russian energy sector.
Russia remains a state whose budget is primarily linked to energy supplies. And any problems with such supplies reduce the capabilities of the Russian budget and Putin's plans for a long-term war with Ukraine.
Prior to Trump's speech, the Russian president's greatest ally was not even China, but time. It is the long-term war of attrition of Ukraine, as the Russian president reasoned, that will sooner or later put an end to the history of the neighboring state and allow it to annex Ukrainian territories to Russia, which, in turn, will allow it to proceed to the restoration of the borders of the former Soviet Union, which will become the borders of the new Russia. However, now that Russia may simply run out of money for this imperialistic experiment of its second president, Putin will have to consider whether the fate of the Soviet Union awaits the Russian Federation.
Soviet leaders were so caught up in the arms race with the US and other Western countries that they failed to notice how the history of their criminal, misanthropic state was coming to an end. Although, I would like to remind you, the leaders of the West at that time, who were ready for further confrontation with the communist system, did not expect such an outcome either.
It is obvious that Ronald Reagan, François Mitterrand, and Margaret Thatcher wanted coexistence with a more predictable Soviet Union, rather than the demise of the communist empire and the greatest crisis in its existence since the Bolsheviks' victory in 1917-1920. Putin and Medvedev's Russia may face the same inglorious fate.
Donald Trump would apparently like to force the Russian president to compromise and suspend military action in Ukraine, and emphasizes that he is determined. But in reality, the American president is simply dragging the Russian leadership into a new arms race with the West and a struggle to prove that “no one will ever dictate anything to Russia.”
Putin may choose to adopt the Brezhnev-Andropov tactics in his dealings with the US leadership. He may continue to increase the pace of his offensive in Ukraine and shell Ukrainian territory, ignoring Trump's ultimatums, which the Kremlin considers decorative. The American president will continue to be perceived by Putin either as someone who can be easily manipulated, thereby creating favorable conditions for the continuation of the war with Ukraine, which Putin hates, or simply ignored when Trump issues his warnings. And Trump will increase his statements about Russia and actions to help Ukraine, hoping that sooner or later the Russian political leadership will realize the importance of a compromise with Washington. 
And there will be no compromise. There will be an escalation of war and crisis in the post-Soviet space. Putin will look for Trump's weaknesses not only when it comes to the Russian-Ukrainian war, but also when it comes to other regions of the world. Russia will increase its cooperation with Iran and North Korea to create new crisis moments for the United States, and Trump will respond to these challenges from Putin.
And in the end, the Russian economy may not be able to withstand this frantic pace of struggle. Under Trump or his successor, a crisis will begin in the post-Soviet space, which can be compared to the crisis of the former Soviet Union. Only now the main figure in this crisis will be Putin's Russia itself with its aggressive ambitions.