Washington. — A week ago, U.S. President Donald trump has accused that he is a weapon in the hands of Russia, an unwitting agent of influence, which is so much admired Russian President Vladimir Putin that he even defends the Russian leader from attacks by critics who call him a murderer.
Now, when its decision Mr. trump provoked a diplomatic confrontation with Russia, Mr. Putin, his administration accuses Moscow of trying to hide the fact of use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against its own citizens, and U.S. Secretary of state insists that Moscow has made a choice between Syria and the United States.
Despite the unpredictability of the presidency, Mr. trump, his sharp turn from sympathy to confrontation shocked Washington and other capitals. The prospects of establishing relations between America and Russia have been rather dim, given the atmosphere of suspicion that arose in connection with the intervention of the Kremlin in the presidential elections in the United States, but the discharge, which not so long ago promised Mr. trump, suddenly turned into a new round of the cold war.
From the point of view of the representatives of the camp of Mr. trump, this sharp turn just proved how wrong was from the very beginning all the versions of the conspiracy. “This step is in Syria in the first place allowed to prove the absence of any ties with Russia”, — said the son of Mr. trump, Eric trump (Trump Eric).
From the point of view of some critics, it was a cynical attempt to divert public attention from investigation of possible contacts between aides to Mr. trump and Russia, despite the fact that Moscow was trying to help Mr. Trump to win the election.
In any case, all this indicates that in the next few months relations between Russia and America can be extremely volatile and explosive, given the impulsive response of the President, has no experience of conducting foreign policy, often sharp reaction of the Russian leader, is also prone to fits of irritation, as well as the contradictions in the national interests of these countries in key regions of the world.
“I was skeptical about the prospects for a successful reset in relations of the USA and Russia after all that has happened in the last few years, said Angela Stent (Angela Stent), a former officer of national intelligence, now a fellow at Georgetown University. — It is surprising how quickly we’re back to the status quo that existed at the end of the period of work of the Obama administration”.
John Byerly (John R. Beyrle), former US Ambassador in Moscow, noted that the extremes in the relations between countries is often exaggerated and that most likely everything will stop somewhere in the middle. “The trust level is so much lower that these first meetings will help us to reach agreements, and investigation of possible Russian interference in the election casts a giant shadow, the existence of which will have to recognize both sides,” he said.
Mr. trump became the fourth consecutive President who took office with the firm intention to reset relations with Moscow. But the difference lies in the fact that last year’s hacker attack on the system of national Committee of the Democratic party, for which the intelligence community has accused Russia, made a rapprochement between Mr. trump and Mr. Putin is very problematic in a political sense.
His willingness to close our eyes to the annexation of the Crimea, the Russian military incursion in Eastern Ukraine and — until recently — to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has puzzled many experts. Mr. trump called Mr. Putin a “stronger leader” than President Barack Obama praised him for “an excellent job” and expressed the hope that the Russian leader will be his “new best friend”. Former acting FBI Director Michael Morrell (Michael Morrell) wrote last fall that Mr. trump, apparently, is for Moscow “the unwitting agent of influence.”
Tuesday, April 11, after Mr. trump ordered to launch a missile attack on the military airfield in Syria in response to the application of the Syrian regime of chemical weapons against his own citizens, the Secretary of state Rex Tillerson (Rex W. Tillerson) has arrived in Moscow to warn Moscow about the need to stop supporting Mr. Assad. He was met rather coldly, he refused to meet with Mr. Putin — not one Secretary of state the United States has not denied a meeting with the Russian leader during his first visit to Moscow since Kordella hull (Cordell Hull). And in Washington, a briefing was held, where Russia is accused of trying to hide a chemical attack by the Syrian regime against civilians.
All this Russia has responded to tough rhetoric. On Tuesday, Mr. Putin compared the actions of Mr. trump in Syria with the invasion President George W. Bush in Iraq in 2003. And Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that President trump was not the way he wanted to seem in the course of his campaign.
“That’s it. The remains of the pre-election fog has lifted”, — he wrote last week on Facebook. And in the end he stressed that “the existing machinery of government broke pre-election setup of the trump.”
According to Mr. Morrell, despite the fact that he called Mr. trump’s “agent of influence” of Russia, he always believed that the behavior of Russia sooner or later will provoke a divergence of paths. “Apparently, that is what is happening now,” he said. But, according to him, Mr. trump chose to make this position was voiced by Mr. Tillerson and others.
“He needs to do this, it is necessary to criticize a huge number of aggressive steps taken by Putin over the last two years,” said Mr. Morrell.
Jennifer Palmeri (Jennifer Palmieri), who was the Director of communications at the campaign headquarters of Hillary Clinton, claims that a sharp change in tone in the last few days does not prove that in the period of the election campaign headquarters between Mr. trump and Russia was not collusion. “Everything that we believe happened during the election campaign, may be true: Putin wanted he became President, and last week the administration did what she did, she said. All this may be part of the Studio tricks or Putin is very upset”.
In any case, she said, “there is no evidence to refute our suspicions about what happened during the election period, or indications that the Democrats should stop the investigation. Moreover, it is rather strange that he said nothing about it”.
On Wednesday Mr. trump will have the opportunity, when it will host NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (Jens Stoltenberg). European leaders will listen to everything that you tell them Mr. trump, given that during the election campaign, he criticized NATO and praised Mr. Putin.
Assistants Mr. trump was extremely dissatisfied with the public focus on the investigation of possible relations team of Mr. trump with Russia and the allegations that they did something unacceptable, despite the lack of hard evidence of collusion between the election headquarters of Mr. trump and Moscow. They accuse the media in the dissemination of fake news, which are now refuted. How, they ask, could the team of Mr. trump to enter into a secret agreement with Russia, if his own Secretary of state can’t even meet with Mr. Putin?
“It is quite interesting that we have gone from the immediate ties with Russia to disappointment in connection with inability to meet with him, — said the press Secretary of the White house Sean Spicer (Sean Spicer). — This is a kind of irony.”
Eric trump has voiced the same idea in an interview with the London newspaper the Daily Telegraph, which was published on Tuesday, April 11. He said that to strike against the Syrian regime in connection with the use of chemical weapons by his father and partly prompted by his sister Ivanka, who was shocked by such brutality of the Syrian President.
Despite the many issues surrounding the approach of the President to Russia, Eric trump said that his father will not allow Mr. Putin to “Lord it over” them. “He’s not one of those people who can be intimidated,” he added.
Meanwhile, members of Congress are trying to understand what is happening.
“It is primarily talking about inconsistent foreign policy of his administration — said democratic Senator Chris Murphy (Chris Murphy). — Changes in the rhetoric about Russia’s confusing. I’m glad these changes and hope that this trend will continue. However, so far all we know about foreign policy is that probably it will change in a couple of weeks.”
But, according to Murphy, the congressional committees on the intelligence still needs to understand what happened in the past year. If the change in tone of the administration occurred two months ago, is, according to him, could shake the determination of the committees. However, since a lot of new data.
“Now in this story there are many important facts, he said. — We need to get to the bottom”.
