Putin Has Long Wanted More Power in Europe. Trump Could Grant It.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shocked the audience at the annual security conference in Munich in 2007 by demanding the rollback of domineering American influence and a new balance of power in Europe more suitable to Moscow.

He didn’t get what he wanted — then.

Nearly two decades later, during the very same conference, top officials from President Trump’s cabinet made one thing clear: Mr. Putin has found an American administration that might help him realize his dream.

Comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance raised fears among attendees that under the new administration the U.S. might align with Russia and either assail Europe or abandon it altogether.

Such a shift, analysts say, would give Mr. Putin a previously unthinkable victory far more momentous for him than any objectives in Ukraine.

“Since the dawn of the Cold War in the late 1940s, the Kremlin has dreamed of pushing America out of its role as the cornerstone of European security,” said Andrew S. Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Putin surely is savvy enough to pounce on any openings provided by the new administration.”