Trump has low expectations for his Helsinki summit with Putin

Pressure over Russia officers’ indictment

TURNBERRY, Scotland, July 15, (RTRS): US President Donald Trump said he had low expectations for the Monday summit with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin just days after 12 Russian intelligence officers were charged by a federal grand jury for hacking the Democrats ahead of the 2016 election.

The summit, which comes at one of the most crucial junctures for the West since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, has perturbed some European allies who fear Putin might seek a grand deal that undermines the US-led transatlantic alliance.

Trump, who has been preparing for the summit by playing golf at his Trump Turnberry course on the western coast of Scotland, told CBS in an interview that "nothing bad" would come out of the summit with Putin.

"I go in with low expectations," Trump told CBS in Turnberry. "I'm not going with high expectations."

A US federal grand jury charged 12 Russian intelligence officers on Friday with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016, in the most detailed US accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the election to help Republican Trump.

Trump has repeatedly said the investigation into suspected Russian interference in the 2016 US election - which he casts as a "rigged witch hunt" - makes it hard for him to do substantive deals with Moscow.

But the charges shine an even brighter spotlight on Trump's treatment of Putin, who has repeatedly denied that Russia sought to skew the election that Trump, a Republican, unexpectedly won.

When asked by CBS if he would ask Putin to extradite the Russians to the United States, Trump said he hadn't thought of that idea but that he might. Russia's constitution forbids the extradition of its own citizens.

"I hadn't thought of that," Trump said. "But certainly, I'll be asking about it. But again, this was during the Obama administration. They were doing whatever it was during the Obama administration."

When Trump meets Putin, he sits down with a disciplined, detail-oriented and experienced Russian leader who has played on the world stage for more than 18 years, in contrast to the US president's 18 months in office.

Trump, a 72-year-old former New York real estate developer who praises his own deal-making skills, and Putin, a 65-year-old former KGB spy who cultivates a macho image as a man of action, are due to have some time alone at the summit.

"I think it's a good thing to meet," Trump said. "Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out."

Trump has said he wants to raise nuclear arms control, Ukraine and Syria with Putin, who has served as Russia's preeminent leader since Boris Yeltsin resigned on the last day of 1999.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Trump against making any unilateral deals with Russia that

Putin

come with a cost for the United States' Western allies.

Trump was seen playing golf on Sunday at his course by two Reuters reporters. On Saturday, he also played golf.

Putin on Saturday held several meetings in the Kremlin before attending the opera at the Bolshoi Theatre. He is due to attend the soccer World Cup final between France and Croatia at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow on Sunday.

Meanwhile, if US President Trump was inclined to be tentative when raising election meddling with Russian President Putin on Monday, the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking in 2016 has made that approach a much harder sell.

A federal grand jury on Friday alleged that officers of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, secretly monitored computers and stole data from the campaign of Trump's former rival, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The charges put an even greater spotlight on Trump's treatment of Putin, who has denied making efforts to intervene in the US election that Trump, a Republican, unexpectedly won.

Trump has called the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Moscow a "witch hunt" and has shown an eagerness to get along with his Russian counterpart, repeatedly referring to the former KGB leader's denials of such behavior.

"Trump has maybe a little less room to maneuver if he wants to downplay the issue or pretend that it's not real," said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Trump has said he plans to raise the issue. When asked at a news conference in Britain on Friday whether he would tell Putin to stay out of US elections, Trump said "yes".

But the president indicated he did not expect much progress on the issue. "I will absolutely bring that up," Trump told reporters. "I don't think you'll have any 'Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me.'"

Critics said they were skeptical Trump would press the issue at all, despite the indictments.

"Even with today's news, we can expect Trump to raise Putin's attack on our democracy in a passing, perfunctory way before again taking - or at least claiming to take - Putin's denials at face value," said Ned Price, a former national security council spokesman for President Barack Obama.

Democratic lawmakers urged Trump to cancel the get-together with Putin. The president is spending the weekend at his golf property in Scotland before leaving on Sunday for Helsinki, where the meeting is scheduled to take place.

Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the release of the charges "has no impact on Monday's meeting."

But the summit, and the extent of Trump's emphasis on election meddling, could highlight a divide between him and his own advisers, not to mention other Republicans, about the seriousness of Russia's activities.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser John Bolton, at least prior to joining the White House, have both been more critical of Moscow than the president they serve.