(CNN) Russian President Vladimir Putin knows how to make a very small investment for an outsized public-relations gain, and the Covid-19 pandemic has been no exception.

On Wednesday, a Russian An-124 cargo plane landed at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport carrying a shipment of medical supplies, including ventilators and personal protective equipment, to help US hospitals and communities on the front lines of the fight with coronavirus.

It was a from-Russia-with-love moment: The New York air traffic controller thanked the Russian pilot when the massive aircraft landed, and Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, tweeted that the shipment was a "gesture of solidarity with New Yorkers who are in a very difficult situation at the moment."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian side offered Washington assistance in light of the epidemiological situation in the US, Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti reported Tuesday. "Trump gratefully accepted this humanitarian aid," Peskov said, according to RIA.

At first, it seemed like a typically Putinesque masterstroke of public relations: Russia, once a recipient of US aid after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was now coming to the aid of the world's wealthiest nation. But in a statement, US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus emphasized that the shipment was a purchase, not a donation.

Read More