Tag: Helsinki Summit

Russia continues to shape narrative of Helsinki summit

The following article by Karen DeYoung was posted on the Washington Post website July 20, 2018:

President Trump and Russian President Putin arrive Monday for a press conference in Helsinki, Finland. Credit: Chris McGrath, Getty Images

Russia provided additional details Friday of what it said were agreements made at the presidential summit in Helsinki this week, shaping a narrative of the meeting with no confirmation or alternative account from the Trump administration.

Not surprisingly, the Russian story line tended to favor the Kremlin’s own policy prescriptions, at times contradicting stated administration strategy.

Russia already has sent formal proposals to Washington for joint U.S.-Russia efforts to fund reconstruction of war-ravaged Syria and facilitate the return home of millions of Syrians who fled the country, following “agreements reached” by President Trump and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the three-star head of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said Friday.

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Questions mount over Trump-Putin discussions

The following article by Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website July 20, 2018:

Credit: Yuri Kadobnova, AFP/Getty Images

The White House is facing mounting pressure to disclose details of President Trump’s discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin from this week’s summit in Helsinki.

The one-on-one meeting between the two leaders has been shrouded in controversy ever since Trump, standing beside Putin following the meeting, cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in the election in favor of Putin’s own denials.

Trump administration officials have said little specifically about any agreements reached or proposals made during the meeting.

Instead, they’ve had to bat down queries about whether Trump was going to go along with a Putin plan to have Russian officials interview U.S. citizens, including former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. Putin also floated the possibility of a referendum to determine whether Crimea would be part of Ukraine and Russia, an idea the administration did not immediately shoot down.

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White House defends Putin for asking Trump to hand over US citizens

The following article by Kaili Joy Gray was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 19, 2018:

National outrage and horror forced Trump to reverse himself and say he will not hand U.S. citizens over to Russia for interrogation. And yet, the White House is still praising and defending Putin for asking.

Trump horrified the country when he said he was considering Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s request for Trump to hand over top U.S. diplomats for interrogation.

Now the White House is belatedly saying Trump “disagrees” with it.

“It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Thursday. “Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt.”

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Trump’s very bad, very weak week

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website July 20, 2018:

Over the course of three days, President Trump commented on Russian election interference in ways that repeatedly contradicted his own intelligence officials. (Video: Peter Stevenson/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Update: And now Trump, apparently unbowed, wants to invite Putin to Washington.

For the third time this week, President Trump has been forced to walk back something he said about Russia. First it was comparing his own intelligence community’s credibility to Vladimir Putin’s. Then it was his statement that Russia wasn’t still interfering in U.S. elections. And now it’s his apparent plan to allow Russia to interview Americans it accuses of crimes, including a former ambassador.

It was all one giant, self-inflicted wound. And it all did precisely what Putin hopes and what Trump seems to fear most: made Trump look weak and ineffectual.

The White House finally shot down that last idea Thursday afternoon — three days after Trump called it an “incredible offer” and nearly a full day after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders inflamed congressional allies and even the State Department by suggesting it could actually come to fruition.

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Senate approves resolution warning Trump not to hand over US officials

The following article by Jordain Carney was posted on the Hill website July 19, 2018:

The Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution warning President Trump not to let the Russian government question diplomats and other officials, shortly after the White House released a statement backpedaling on a proposal to allow Moscow to help interrogate U.S. citizens such as former Ambassador Michael McFaul.

Senators voted 98-0 on the resolution spearheaded by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez(N.J.), Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii).

“That President Trump would even consider handing over a former U.S. ambassador to Putin and his cronies for interrogation is bewildering. …This body must agree on the importance of protecting our ambassadors. We should pass it today, not wait, not show any equivocation,” Schumer said ahead of the vote, which was scheduled before the White House backtracked.

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White House: Trump ‘disagrees’ with Putin’s request to question Americans

The following article by Brett Samuels was posted on the Hill website July 19, 2018:

The White House on Thursday backed off a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to question U.S. citizens over alleged crimes in Russia after initially indicating President Trump would consider the matter.

“It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt.”

The White House response comes after almost 24 hours of criticism from Democrats, Republicans and former diplomats that added to the hailstorm of criticism Trump has received over his meeting with Putin in Helsinki earlier this week.

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As Russians describe ‘verbal agreements’ at summit, U.S. officials scramble for clarity

The following article by Karen DeYoung, Missy Ryan and Anton Troianovski was posted on the Washington Post website July 19, 2018:

President Trump said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin made “significant progress,” on problems in the Middle East and nuclear proliferation. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Two days after President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, Russian officials offered a string of assertions about what the two leaders had achieved.

“Important verbal agreements” were reached at the Helsinki meeting, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, told reporters in Moscow Wednesday, including preservation of the New START and INF agreements, major bilateral arms control treaties whose futures have been in question. Antonov also said Putin had made “specific and interesting proposals to Washington” on how the two countries could cooperate on Syria.

But officials at the most senior levels across the U.S. military, scrambling since Monday to determine what Trump may have agreed to on national security issues in Helsinki, had little to no information Wednesday.

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Trump says he told Putin “we can’t have meddling”

The following article by Shannon Vavra was posted on the Axios website July 18, 2018:

Credit: Yuri Kadobnova, AFP/Getty Images

President Trump, in an interview with CBS News’ Jeff Glor, said that he told Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday that he was “very strong” on the fact that “we can’t have meddling” in our elections, despite failing to confront him on the issue during their joint press conference.

I let him know we can’t have this, we’re not going to have it, and that’s the way it’s going to be.
— President Trump

Why it matters: There’s no way to verify Trump’s account of what he said, since he met with Putin in private. But here’s what Trump said in public about Russian election interference: “I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

View the complete article on the Axios website here.

Facing The Russian Dictator, Our Bullyboy President Cowered

The following article by Gene Lyons was posted on the National Memo website July 17, 2018:

It’s almost proverbial to say that every bully is a coward at heart. But that’s wishful thinking. In politics, many strongmen are like Vladimir Putin, ruthless, cunning and sadistic. As the world witnessed in Helsinki, a posturing blowhard like Donald Trump is simply no match for the Russian dictator.

Faced with a real thug, the trust-fund poser cowered.

Thankfully, Putin is also a bloody-minded realist. Because the disgraceful spectacle of Trump belittling America’s NATO allies, lying about it, and then cringing before the Russian dictator might otherwise tempt him to do something reckless. If the U.S. president is weak, the western democracies are still far stronger than Russia. But events are definitely moving in Putin’s direction.

View the complete post on the National Memo website here.

How Trump retreats: Grudging apologies, plus a wink and a nod to the original insult

The following article by Marc Fisher was posted on the Washington Post website July 17, 2018:

After his Helsinki comments, President Trump said he accepts U.S intelligence findings on Russia’s election interference, but it “could be other people also.” (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

As a young man on the make in Manhattan, as a political candidate and as president, Donald Trump has relied for half a century on a basic rule of behavior: To win, one must never apologize.

But sometimes life offers no choice but to back down, and when that happens to Trump, he has crafted a method of apology that is equal parts retreat and doubling down.

On Tuesday, President Trump felt compelled to pull back on his statement in Helsinki on Monday that embraced Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s version of the 2016 presidential campaign interference story over the facts presented by U.S. intelligence services.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.