The following article by Ishaan Tharoor was posted on the Washington Post website July 23, 2018:
0It’s been a week since President Trump met his Russian counterpart in Helsinki, and Washington is still dealing with the rancor and confusion that resulted. American foreign-policy officials were stunned by Trump’s behavior, which ranged from rejecting his intelligence community’s assessment that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election to considering, albeit briefly, handing over a number of current and former American diplomats for questioning by Russian authorities. His performance earned rebukes from lawmakers and former officials, and even a retort from his own director of national intelligence.
Despite the fallout, the White House issued a surprise invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit Washington later this year. The prospect of a second summit also surprised official Washington, not least because there are still so many questions about what transpired during the first. Before staging their now-infamous news conference in the Finnish capital, Trump and Putin held a two-hour private discussion, accompanied only by interpreters. Even key officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, have been left in the dark.
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
I had a GREAT meeting with Putin and the Fake News used every bit of their energy to try and disparage it. So bad for our country!
According to my colleagues’ latest reporting, Trump and Putin discussed Russian efforts to collaborate with Israel in Syria, as well as the touchy subject of Ukraine. Russian officials suggested that the duo had talked about staging a referendum in regions of the country held by Russian-backed separatists, but U.S. officials subsequently denied ever agreeing to such a scenario. Since the meeting, Russia has continued to refer to “agreements” supposedly hashed out between the two leaders — ones the White House has done little to confirm or explain.