Russia inquiry looms over talks
Summit comes after 12 Russian military intelligence agents indicted
US President Donald Trump’s persistence in pursuing friendly ties with President Vladimir Putin has highlighted a growing disconnect within his Administration over Russia policy.
Trump speaks fondly of Putin and a desire for better relations with Moscow, but the rest of his executive branch remains highly critical and deeply suspicious of the Russian President and the Kremlin’s intentions.
The stark contrast in approaches has been thrown into sharp relief as Trump and Putin prepare for their summit in Finland tonight, amid unremitting criticism of Russia from Trump’s State Department, Justice Department, Treasury Department and Defence Department.
That might be explained as a good cop-bad cop strategy with Russia. But the mixed messaging has left America’s friends and allies confused, particularly after a contentious Nato summit where Trump questioned the value of the alliance that Putin has long denounced and sought to weaken. The Kremlin has said Putin and Trump may not issue a joint statement following their “difficult” summit, suggesting a conflict over Russian interference in the US election was tripping up talks before they even began.
The newspaper Kommersant reported that Moscow had passed a draft statement to Washington, where officials demanded that it include a guarantee that Russian intelligence agencies’ meddling in the 2016 election would not be repeated.
However, Putin’s spokesman said a “joint communique is not a mandatory attribute of such meetings”. The day before, he had admitted the talks would be “difficult” given the “extent of the disagreements on the agenda”.
Trump similarly played down the prospect of Putin admitting to election meddling during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May. “I know you’ll ask will we be talking about meddling. And I will absolutely bring that up. I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it’.”
The first formal summit comes with risks for the US President, whose election campaign ties to the Kremlin are being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Helsinki has hosted summits between American and Russian leaders since Soviet times. Trump will first hold talks with Sauli Niinisto¨, the Finnish President, before a one-on-one with Putin, followed by a working lunch with a wider group of officials. Thousands of Finnish police officers, coastguards and rescue workers on holiday have been called back to work for the visit with protests expected.
Trump will be under pressure to raise the issue of election interference after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian military intelligence agents for stealing Democrat emails and attempting to hack election board computers. They began their attempt to break into Hillary Clinton’s servers the same day that Trump suggested that Russia try to find the emails she had deleted from a private account she had used while Secretary of State, according to the indictment.
The Russian President will warn his American counterpart against allowing “speculation on the harmful and artificially supported topic” of election interference, Yury Ushakov, an aide to Putin, said.
The war in Syria and Iran’s role in it will dominate the discussion, Putin’s aide said, followed by the Ukraine crisis, the North Korean nuclear programme and the Iran nuclear deal. The US has been backing Israel’s quest to constrain Iranian influence in Syria. While Putin’s air force joined Iranian troops to turn the tide of the war in favour of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, he also has a good rapport with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister.
Alexei Makarkin, an analyst, said the US President could lean on his Russian counterpart to promote the Israeli case with the Assad Government. “While Russia wants better relations with the US, it doesn’t want to start a war with Iran in Syria,” he said.
One area where the US and Russia could find common interest is nuclear arms control. The two sides could agree to hold further meetings, restarting the frozen political dialogue.