The White House should not reference, as it did on Friday, a “very positive” call. After all, the White House says the two leaders discussed North Korea, Ukraine, Venezuela, nuclear arms control, and the Mueller report. And Putin’s interests are very much in conflict with our own on each of those issues.

On North Korea, Putin is undercutting Trump’s effort to persuade Kim Jong Un to abandon his nuclear and long-range ballistic missile programs. Putin sees North Korea as an opportunity to destabilize U.S. security, and Russia’s pathway towards a South Korean port network. The Russian leader has little concern over Kim’s retention of nuclear weapons. Indeed, as those weapons threaten America, Putin’s government finds it funny.

On Ukraine, Putin wants to sever Crimea and two other southeastern provinces from the Ukrainian government. Pursuing that objective, Putin mixes a combination of irregular warfare, temporary cease fires (as in Syria), and intelligence action to control the highways between Mariupol, Donetsk, and Luhansk. Trump has actively countered these efforts, but it is impossible that Putin had anything good to say about the issue on Friday, because Putin is not quitting in Ukraine.

On Venezuela, Putin has taken advantage of Trump’s hesitation to consolidate Nicolás Maduro’s illegitimate regime. This has damaged U.S. foreign policy credibility in Latin America.