Russia’s war in Ukraine accomplished something no American strategy could have engineered on its own: It hollowed out Moscow’s grip on its former empire. The White House noticed and moved. Congress still has not.

The Trump administration has moved at a remarkable pace. In August 2025, Washington displaced Moscow as broker of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, hosting both leaders at the White House and producing the framework that closed out a conflict Russia had spent three decades managing for its own benefit. Out of that came the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity, a transit corridor under joint U.S.-Armenian control across southern Armenia that closes the missing link in the Middle Corridor — the trade route that moves goods from Asia to Europe while bypassing Russia and Iran entirely.