Weekend "sports" for Trump and Putin before their summit

The US President and his Russian counterpart, whose every move will be carefully scrutinized around the world, will meet in the Finnish capital at the end of the weekend. Their summit promises to be particularly thorny.

Before attacking his European tour, Donald Trump predicted that the Helsinki stage, where he must find Vladimir Putin, would be "easier" . Their summit, however, looks particularly thorny. The US president and his Russian counterpart, whose every move will be carefully scrutinized around the world, will meet in the Finnish capital at the end of a weekend "sports" . 19659003] The first taste of the joys of golf – his "main form of exercise" according to his terms – in his luxurious Scottish resort of Turnberry. The second will attend Sunday night's final of the World Cup-2018 football in Moscow between France and Croatia. On this occasion, he will hold talks with the heads of state of the two finalist nations, Frenchman Emmanuel Macron and Croatian Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.

If the stages of the 45th President of the United States in Brussels and London were stormy, marked by his virulent charges against NATO allies, – Germany in the lead, accused of being "prisoner" of the Russians – the points of friction between Washington and Moscow are not lacking. Attachment in March 2014 of the Ukrainian Peninsula of Crimea by Moscow, support of Russia to the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, new US customs duties … The list is long.

Head-to-head

The two presidents will meet first one-on-one with their only interpreters at the Presidential Palace, before opening the meeting at their respective delegations for a working lunch. The day will end with a joint press conference that could be very colorful given the propensity of the real estate mogul to leap from one subject to another and to get angry with journalists he qualifies. "Fake news" .

In the face of Vladimir Putin, will Donald Trump badume the role of leader of "free world" and hold him to account? Will he instead try to stroke the Russian leader in the direction of the hair as he did with the Chinese Xi Jinping and even the North Korean Kim Jong Un? What will be the strategy of the strong man of the Kremlin?

"Putin has demonstrated his incredible ability to read personalities" badyzes Alina Polyakova, of the Brookings Institution. "This is what he was trained for, after all, as an intelligence officer and I think he is particularly good at detecting weaknesses." .

In an open letter to the US president, half a dozen Democratic senators urged him not to negotiate alone with the strong man of the Kremlin. "There must be other Americans in the room" have they hammered, even if their request is unlikely to be heard by the septuagenarian

Kremlin interference

Three days before the meeting, another sensitive topic was dramatically re-imposed on the menu of debates: the indictment of twelve Russian intelligence agents in the investigation into the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Donald Trump is committed to putting the subject on the table in Helsinki. "I will absolutely and firmly ask the question" he claimed, hammering that he was "much firmer about Russia than anyone else" .

He denies any collusion with Moscow and tirelessly denounces a "witch hunt" led by an FBI in the pay of Democrats. Russia also denies any interference, as it denies its responsibility in the poisoning in Novitchok of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March in Salisbury, in the south-west of England. Both survived, but a 44-year-old Briton died last week in the same area, and a "small bottle" containing the innervating agent was found at her mate's home.

" If we can develop a relationship (with Mr. Putin), it would be fantastic" repeating Donald Trump. For Maria Lipman, an independent political badyst based in Moscow, the meeting will be difficult because what unites the two men is ultimately that "neither one (…) is ready to yield under pressure ".