The Russian President went into the meeting with the goal of keeping the status quo. Trump delivered that, and then some. Photograph by Grigory Dukor / Reuters

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s news conference in Helsinki, on Monday, was the greatest love letter, or public capitulation, of an American President to his Russian counterpart in memory. Surely, Putin must have been pleased that Trump declined to press him on a single policy issue, and that he sided with Putin over his own intelligence chiefs in denying Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Trump rambled, digressed, and criticized the F.B.I. and the Mueller investigation. All Putin had to do was remain taciturn and pocket one good hand after another. How did it go? “Better than super,” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, told a Russian news agency.

For weeks, the Kremlin, along with the state-run media, downplayed expectations for concrete plans coming out of the Helsinki meeting. And in fact it seems that Trump and Putin failed to reach any significant agreement on Syria, Ukraine, or even arms control, the perennial low-hanging fruit of the U.S.-Russia relationship. But that is not what Putin wanted from the summit or thought realistic to achieve. Whether in Ukraine or Syria, the status quo suits Putin just fine, or, rather, is preferable to the cost of changing it. Moreover, many in Russia’s defense establishment and security services are loath to see Putin make concessions in pursuit of economic benefits, and they have been ascendant in recent years; Putin is not inclined to upset them. He wanted to keep things as they are—with Trump acknowledging Russia as a rightful and indispensable power, and describing the Obama Administration’s attempts to isolate Russia as misguided and counterproductive.

Trump delivered that, and then some. In his remarks, Trump said that “our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago.” What had happened exactly? We never heard. Trump and Putin made vague comments about global stability, nuclear weapons, and Syria and Ukraine, but none suggested that Putin had changed any policy position on Trump’s urging, or that any such urging had occurred.

When the reporter Jeff Mason, of Reuters, asked Trump whether he blamed Russia for anything at all, Trump spoke about the Mueller investigation, calling it “a disaster for our country.” A few moments later, Jonathan Lemire, from the Associated Press, pushed Trump on whether he would denounce Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Trump replied that Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, “came to me and some others and said they think it’s Russia.” On the other hand, he went on, “I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be.” (Coats later released a statement reiterating “our assessments of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and their ongoing, pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy.”)

I couldn’t help but think that Putin, next to Trump, looked the sober and composed adult. He allowed himself some moments of trolling—like suggesting that Mueller’s investigators come to Moscow and interview Russian agents—but it was easy to play the straight man as Trump spoke about his own obsessions, including his 2016 election victory. I could sense the gathering shock among the assembled journalists when Trump brought up Hillary Clinton’s “thirty-three thousand emails” and “the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the D.N.C.” The awkward shuffling and hushed comments grew loudest when he called Putin’s suggestion of hosting Mueller’s team an “incredible offer.”

Whatever Putin and those working on his behalf did or did not do to help elect Trump, they must be pleased with the result. In one possible slip, Putin, when asked if he had preferred Trump to Clinton, said, “Yes, I did.” Perhaps the only concern for the Kremlin today is that Trump’s performance could prove counterproductive. His statements in Helsinki insured that Russia will remain politically toxic in Washington for some time to come. Still, this was an enormously advantageous—even victorious—summit for Putin. Super, in fact.