Blowback as intelligence community blindsided
WASHINGTON: While United States President Donald Trump defended his efforts to build a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, aides said at the weekend there is some frustration that the US intelligence chief did not know about plans for a second summit and they hope that meeting will follow a more traditional pattern.
Since last Tuesday’s summit and joint news conference in Helsinki, Trump and his aides have been trying to control the damage done when he stunned the world by siding with Putin over US intelligence agencies on the question of Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US election.
Staff defended
US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who on Tuesday immediately defended intelligence personnel on the election issue, expressed surprise at Trump’s invitation on Friday to Putin to visit Washington in the northern autumn.
Coats was on camera while at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado when news broke of the invitation and it clearly took him aback. He advised against a oneonone meeting with Putin, saying he ‘‘would look for a different way of doing it’’.
If Coats had been in Washington instead of the conference, he would have been informed about the plan, one source familiar with the inner workings of the White House said on condition of anonymity.
Kept in dark
Five days after the twohour Helsinki meeting, attended only by the two leaders and their interpreters, some US officials remained in the dark about what was discussed.
On Twitter, Trump listed topics he and Putin talked about, but gave no details. He said they discussed counterterrorism, Israel’s security, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace and North Korea.
There are hopes inside the administration that the next summit will be more traditional, with US and Russian negotiators meeting ahead of time to set up an agenda and try to reach agreement on some issues.
One official, asked if the reaction to Helsinki would be a more organised process, said this is often how the White House oper ates. Another official said aides thought a proper procedure had been put in place for Helsinki, but it did not work out.
Syria, Ukraine
As Americans groped for information about the meeting, Moscow offered snippets of its version on Saturday.
Russia’s defence ministry said it sent detailed proposals to Washington on organising the return of more than 1.7 million refugees to Syria after agreements reached by Putin and Trump, RIA news agency said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters at the United Nations later that Trump and Putin discussed how to return refugees who fled the civil war in Syria, but offered no details and did not mention any Russian proposals.
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that Putin also made proposals to Trump involving eastern Ukraine, citing Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov. He did not spell out what they were.
A White House National Security Council spokesman said later the United States on Saturday rejected a proposal from Russia for a referendum to decide the fate of eastern Ukraine.
The Russian ambassador said Moscow was ready to discuss a proposed new meeting between Putin and Trump, Interfax said.
Cyber attacks
Putin has rejected accusations that his Government meddled in the election won by Trump. A week ago, a federal grand jury indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for carrying out cyber attacks to undermine Democratic Party networks. A special counsel is also investigating whether Trump campaign aides coordinated with Russian officials, which Trump denies.
US intelligence officials have said Moscow is targeting congressional elections in November, as well.
A Microsoft Corp executive said at the Colorado conference that Russian hackers had targeted at least three candidates running in November.
The company found evidence of a fake Microsoft site being used for phishing attacks and was able to take down the page and hackers did not get in, vicepresident of customer security Tom Burt said. Burt declined to identify the candidates. — Reuters