This summit is likely to be without precedent. Concessions, agreement, national expressions of  friendship, or personal bonding, are unlikely.  Neither personality lends to the media circus in the manner of the Trump-Kim summit.  We won’t be bored by the freebee hand-shake shots that dripped heedlessly from the Reuters front page. In anticipation, Getty has sourced Russian dancing bears snacking on Delaware blue crab.

If the summit pays dividends,  the distributions will come in the future, beyond the standard diplomatic horizon, where six months are equivalent to five minutes of anything else. You are entitled to  speculate on the nature of these dividends.

Clue. Of all the issues of the U.S. – Russia relationship, virtually all are unmovable, not in play. A minority become negotiable with passage of time. What is impossible now may become slightly possible in 2, 4,…8 years.

To avoid interfering with Biden’s message, this discussion will resume after the summit.