More room to operate with Putin? Such as what? another arms treaty that Russia will never honor ever or perhaps surrender eastern Europe there’s no meeting with Putin that would ever produce anything meaningful you all have got to understand this Russia wants their Empire back they’re joint up with Red China who also wants Empire all the meetings summit’s in the world won’t change that.
During the cold war, while Russia was on the march we still communicated with them. A combination of aggressive action (such as arming the Ukrainians, putting pressure on Maduro in Venezuela and working with our South American partners to oust him) and keeping the lines of communication open with Russia prevents a full conflagration. Ultimately, continued energy expansion and selling our natural gas to Europe will really damage Russia. In the meantime we don’t need any jittery fingers on nukes and talking helps prevent that.