Trump continues to talk warmly about Putin – unclear whose interests the US president is trying to promote in Helsinki



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Normally, a summit between two superpowers should be considered welcome, but with President Donald Trump, it's different. As soon as the meeting with Vladimir Putin was published, the debate on his wisdom began in the United States. Some of the arguments against the meeting were the same as those of the North Korean Summit in Singapore – one does not want to reward an undemocratic leader with the aura of respect and legitimacy that the global stage provides.

But what caused the greatest doubt is Trumps own relation to Putin . When Trump shakes hands with the Russian president and settles at the negotiating table, he does not know if he is doing it as the leader of the world's largest power and democracy, considerably stronger than Russia or equal to the club of authoritarian rulers. Trump has shown signs of wanting to belong, or worst of all, as a weak president, whose affairs one way or another have given Putin a hangover and l? advantage in the relationship. In other words, we do not know what interests he wants to promote in Helsinki.

It is important to point out that up to now, both in the congressional investigations and in the investigations of the special prosecutor Robert Mueller on Trump's side, neither current affairs nor mascot related to l & # 39; election. But there is a myriad of links between Trump, his colleagues and Russia, who, with Trump's uncritical and sometimes even shameful report, with the authoritarian Russian president, created confusion and fear among political observers. US. Secret that Trump has a respect for strong leaders who know what they want and do what is necessary to achieve their goals. He expressed admiration for Kim Jong-oer the ability to take control of the country after his father at a young age. He praised the President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte for the war on drugs that includes the extermination of Filipino suspects and smugglers. If Putin told Trump during the presidential campaign that he has strong control over his country and that he is a better leader than Barack Obama . In all three examples, there is admiration for hard leadership even though it is based on undemocratic or even dictatorial methods.

Trump's interest in Putin was strong even before he decided to run in the presidential election. The autumn of 2013 was organized by the Miss Universum contest of Trump belonging to Moscow. Before Trump went to the Russian capital, he sent a tweet asking him if Putin would attend the competition and if he would be his "new best friend" then he would do it.

Perhaps the message was written with a glimpse of the eye, but several books dealing with Trump's visit to Moscow claim that the New York businessman would actually meet Putin. When the competition took place, Putin left, and there was no personal meeting between him and Trump either.

It is also during this trip, according to the infamous Steele record, that Trump was allegedly filmed by Russian spies in the company of prostitutes in his hotel room. The FBI boss James Comey said last spring that he could not exclude that this really happened. Whether the incident actually took place or is on film is an unanswered question. Nothing has been confirmed.

Russia's trade fairs were not limited to beauty pageants. Trump has made at least two unsuccessful attempts to build a Trump skyscraper in Moscow. In a country where oligarchs live and survive through close relations with the core of power, it is clear that the project would have been implemented if Putin wanted it.

Trumps Company also sold homes in the United States to millions of wealthy Russians with close ties to the Kremlin. None of this has been proven illegal or suspicious, but for Trump's detractors he has paved the way for speculation about other obscure activities and Russian money laundering

When the election campaign began in 2015 and 2016, he appeared decided to merge into the US presidential election. While the entire US intelligence team ruled that Russia and Putin were behind computer scams in the democratic e-mail system and other attempts to influence the election via social media, Trump refused to report Putin

. Or China. Or many other people. Maybe there was someone who weighed 200 kg and who was sitting on his bed, said the president.

Still, Trump acknowledges that Russia attacked American democracy

when Trump won the elections and the first meeting was held July 2017 in Hamburg as part of the G20 meeting, Trump continued on his track strange. At a banquet in Hamburg where the G20 meeting was held in 2017, Putin and Trump discussed for an hour only the presence of the Russian interpreter. In other words, Trump conversed for an hour with the man as the biggest part of the political establishment in the United States considered hostile without any protocol on what was said

The Critical commentators of Trump get water on their mill. a dialogue between Putin and himself in Vietnam in November 2017.

– He said that they did not do anything. He said that they did not interfere, I asked him again. You can only ask a certain number of times.

– I actually think he means what he says.

That Trump was ready to relate to an earlier version of KGB espionage and to be rather skeptical The opposite view of their own intelligence corps did not directly disperse the troublemakers diplomatic.

But while Trump refused to give up his confusing delight to Putin, most recently before the current European Tour, he said Putin's meeting will be the easiest of the program, the real political American went in another direction. If the Kremlin has a stranglehold on Putin, they have not used it to lift the sanctions against Moscow, which is the supreme wish of the Kremlin. On the contrary, the United States has tightened sanctions during Trump's presidential term. Hundreds of businessmen with links to power in Moscow have been banned from traveling and their assets are frozen, and business attempts in international trade have been limited. Trump's personal rhetoric and his actions march along with official politics.

Before the meeting in Helsinki, Trump described Putin as neither friend nor enemy without a rival. In Brussels, he said that he did not yet know enough Putin, but he hopes to become a friend. If such a friendship occurs, one may wonder what Trump should do with the trust capital. Trump hardly ever talks about the role of Crimea, Ukraine or Russia in Syria, but if these problems arise, Trump's track record helps us understand what he wants to accomplish with his Russian colleague . Trump does not have the universal values ​​that have ruled the international community in recent decades, and that is why it interferes with traditional allies. That's why it's hard to know what Trump is looking for when he meets Putin. Perhaps it is the favor of the Russian president?

Juri von Bonsdorff
Collaborators in Washington



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