How will Trump handle Putin’s disappointment?

Now President Trump is going to have to spend the coming days and weeks deciding how much of a new Cold War he wants to have with his old friend Vladimir Putin and what he’ll have to give up, at home and abroad, to stave off the chillier scenarios.

From Moscow’s perspective, Putin has been more than patient. Seven months ago, then-president Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and took away access to a couple of vacation homes/spy compounds used by Russian diplomats here in response to election-hacking allegations. Reassured by Trump adviser Michael Flynn that relief was coming soon (and clearly engaged in back-channel meetings with Trump officials and family members), Russia didn’t retaliate.

Moscow clearly has found the reality unappealing: Endless bad-mouthing from the U.S. press and defense officials; mounting U.S. activism in Syria, bumping up against Russia’s own troops and its allies; no return of its compounds; no sanctions relief.