Moscow believes that its leader, former head of the spy network that Vladimir Putin may seek major concessions from President Donald trump, when they will meet next week. On this edition of the Daily Beast reported European officials.
According to officials, their intelligence indicates that Putin is confident in his ability to outsmart trump at the summit Big twenty, using promises of cooperation in such spheres as the fight against terrorism to win concessions like easing or lifting of sanctions against Russia.
“When you meet with Russia, it is impossible to give anything just like that,” warned one Western official, whose words were a reflection of the fears of many European diplomats on the eve of the meeting, trump and Putin, to be held next week on the sidelines of the summit Big twenty in Germany.
Their concerns underscore the concern that inexperience trump and Putin’s ability to flatter over time will lead to a gradual weakening of the Union of the United States and Europe, and will once again strengthen the position of Moscow, almost restoring it to the status of a superpower and not having changes in its aggressive, expansionist behavior.
The administration trump is now under strong pressure in connection with an investigation of Moscow’s attempts to influence the presidential elections in 2016, tip the balance in favor of trump. Even before trump became President, he repeatedly talked about the fact that the head of the Kremlin is the “real leader”, which, he hoped, they manage to become best friends.
Once in the White house, trump tried not to make public accusations against Russia in connection with the alleged interference. Meanwhile, he showed no such restraint, publicly accusing US allies in NATO that they do not want to invest sufficient resources in defense.
“If Russia has conducted a hacker attack, if Russia had taken any action in connection with our elections, I would like to know about it,” said trump on may 11 in an interview with NBC, despite the fact that on the same day the Director of National intelligence Dan Coates (Dan Coats) said, referring to the congressmen that “only the most senior Russian officials could authorize the theft and disclosure of data on American elections in 2016, given the scale and seriousness of purposes.”
Partly for this reason, some European officials with great care to include any possible rapprochement between trump and Putin, despite the promise to strengthen the system for the protection of NATO, the Pentagon Jim Mattis (Jim Mattis) this week — and despite the fact that the state Department trump extended sanctions against Moscow imposed in connection with the annexation of Crimea and its military intervention in the Ukrainian conflict.
“Abroad there is definitely a certain anxiety. They are concerned that Putin and trump can go on to make some kind of deal during the meeting, said Thomas Wright (Thomas Wright) of the Brookings institution, citing its conversations with European officials. — Putin is always very skillfully conducts the first meeting. He has an agenda, and he knows how to manipulate people. If trump is ready, the longer he will stay in the room, it’s dangerous”.
We all know that during the first meetings Putin has managed to charm presidents George Bush and Barack Obama, who immediately began to cooperate, but later felt a deep disappointment when Russia first invaded Georgia, and then annexed the Crimea and invaded the Ukraine.
Thursday, June 29, the national security Advisor to trump, Lieutenant-General Herbert McMaster (H. R. McMaster) told reporters that while a clear agenda of the meeting, no, but made clear that the U.S. President will have a carrot and a stick.
“Our relations with Russia do not differ from relations with any other country in terms of the fact that we openly tell them what our concerns, what we see the problems in the relationship, but also opportunities,” said McMaster.
According to McMaster, trump has instructed his aides to find ways “to confront the destabilizing behavior of Russia” and keep it — whether it’s cyber attacks or “political Subversion” in the United States or in Europe.
“No one wants between the major powers started a war, isn’t it?” he added.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, June 28, Mattis made much harsher statements, criticizing Putin’s military adventurism, which is forced to pay Russian citizens.
“Russia must know what principles we stand for and what we will not tolerate,’ he said, speaking to European military officials in Germany. — While their leader sows dissension outside the Russian borders, it will not be able to recover their well-being and again to provide them with hope”.
European officials hope that these solid messages trump will announce during his first meeting with Putin.
“At various levels I constantly hear that you need to establish with Russia relations of cooperation and to work together where the interests of national security are the same, but that Russia needs to earn that relationship, reinforcing his words with deeds,” said one Western official.
Commenting on the opinion of exploration and discussion on the eve of international travel trump foreign officials asked to keep their names secret. The Russian Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the situation.
According to one Western official, the warming of relations between the US and Russia is not bad, because the solution of many international problems depends on the ability of these two Nations to engage in dialogue.
“We have to get between them remained working relationship,’ said the official. — It is extremely important to ensure that we could achieve our objectives in North Korea, Iran and Syria.” Under these objectives it was meant to make North Korean dictator Kim Jong-UN to abandon attempts to obtain nuclear weapons, to deprive Iran of the ability to obtain nuclear weapons and to convince the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to leave power.
However, earlier this year, the White house trump sent rather mixed signals, considering the possibility of lifting anti-Russian sanctions unilaterally. According to a senior administration official, the national security Council was asking the state Department about how do not harm the anti-Russian sanctions American businesses more than they hurt Moscow, however, officials of the state Department, who participated in the development of these sanctions was skeptical.
Thursday, June 29, the Guardian reported that trump has instructed the officials from the White house to make a list of the diplomatic “tricks” that he could offer to Putin at the meeting, but a senior official from the US administration on condition of anonymity, denied these statements.
Trump continues to exercise restraint in his public comments about Moscow, despite the assurance of administration officials that in may Russia, most likely, knew that the military of the Syrian regime was preparing to use sarin against civilians, because on the basis of which Syrian planes took to the air, were the Russian military.
To understand Putin, Trump is only necessary to refer to the report of the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of defense, published this week, which said that Moscow considers the United States as one of its main enemies.
“The Kremlin is convinced that the US is preparing the ground for regime change in Moscow”, — said in the report. It also said that Moscow blames America in many accidents around the world, including the Arab spring, the overthrow of the Pro-Putin administration in Ukraine and the revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
“Trump needs to be prepared for the fact that Russia considers itself a world power that deserves to be treated as an equal, despite the fact that it flagrantly violates international norms,” wrote Mara Karlin (Karlin Mara), a former high-ranking official at the Pentagon who worked in the administrations of Obama and Bush who now teaches at the School of advanced international studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University.
“He should be ready to complaints of an “Initiative to ensure the security of Europe” [funds for the strengthening of European security], missile defense in Europe and in General the increasing concentration of American forces on European security,” she added.
The administration trump has recently decided to increase funding for the “Initiative on European security” to 4.8 billion dollars next year. The Obama administration proposed this initiative to strengthen the defense system NATO allies after Russia’s military actions in Crimea and Ukraine. It involves keeping U.S. troops in countries bordering Russia that Putin is causing serious discontent.
“They are both masters of the dark arts of deception, misrepresentation, and nationalist symbolism, wrote about trump and Putin Derek Chollet (Derek Chollet), a former official of the Ministry of defense under the administration of Obama. — The obvious map, which will play Putin, is some suggestions on ISIS (a terrorist organization banned in Russia — approx. ed.) and Syria. But what will he have in return? The lifting of sanctions? The withdrawal of troops from the Baltic States? And bite if trump?”
Chollet also wondered, shamed if trump Putin for interference in American elections as he has just shamed its tiny ally in the Persian Gulf, Qatar, in connection with the alleged financing of terrorists. “Or he would agree with Putin that this is fiction?” — suggested the expert.
