The Trump effect on Americans' attitudes towards Vladimir Putin has mostly worn off

Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign raised GOP favorability of Putin. But nearly 80% of Republicans, up from 50%, now say Russia is our enemy

A bipartisan group of Senators last month promised to pass a bill constituting the “mother of all sanctions” against Russia for its aggression against Ukraine. Yet the parties couldn’t agree on what form those sanctions should actually take. Republicans wanted to sanction Nord Stream 2, a Russian gas pipeline in the final stages of construction in Germany. But Democrats argued that imposing such measures before an invasion would give up leverage that the US might need in diplomatic talks with Vladimir Putin. So Democrats attempted a bipartisan solution while tiptoeing around the Treasury Department, which prefers cutting off Russian access to funds stored in the US financial system.

When that dragged on, Republicans announced a bill that would give $500m to Ukraine’s military — which pissed off the Democrats working on the sanctions bill. And so, as of writing, no Congressional sanctions have been passed.

The drama in Congress is being used by the commentariat as proof that the partisa…