High-level meetings, like the one with #Trump in #Alaska, were meant to symbolize this ambition. #Lavrov even arrived there wearing a sweatshirt with the inscription #CCCP.

But, as #Jeremy_Shapiro, director of research and the #US program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, writes in #The_Atlantic, summits and symbolism do not make a country a superpower Real power is needed for that.