Trump backing down on Russia
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump seems to be drifting further and further away from his election promises to co-operate with Russia in combating Islamic State (IS) in Syria, lifting anti-Russian sanctions over Ukraine, and reassessing the incorporation of Crimea.
The reason is all too clear – pressure from his political opponents, primarily the Democrats, who are accusing him of giving in to Russia.
During his presidential campaign Trump said Washington and Moscow could get along if they had common interests, and hinted that he could lift the anti-Russian sanctions imposed over Ukraine in order to join forces in the fight against terrorism.
During a presidential debate with Hillary Clinton on October 10 last year, Donald Trump said: “I think it would be great if we got along with Russia. We could fight Isis together.”
Shortly after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order authorising the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee to prepare a plan for destroying IS and name the new anti-IS coalition partners.
Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said earlier that Russia and the US could start acting together to defeat IS fighters in Raqqa.
However, on March 3, The Associted Press reported that the plans to work out a US-Russian agreement on joint action against IS could be delayed.
It cited diplomatic sources as saying that Trump had made the decision because of the row over some members of his team who had had contact with Russian diplomats. At one of the recent news conferences Trump admitted that this could upset negotiations with Russia.
The furore led, in particular, to the resignation of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, one of the key figures in the Trump administration, in the middle of February. Several days prior, The Washington Post published an article citing some sources alleging that Flynn had had contact with the Russian Ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, before Trump’s inauguration. The article said they had been discussing the anti-Russian sanctions. The latest changes may also be linked to Trump’s new advisers, who have a tougher stance on Russia.
Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul noted that although Trump wanted to improve relations with Russia, hand-picked members of his team did not share his views. Besides, other Western countries were trying to convince the US not to make premature concessions to Moscow.
Throughout the presidential campaign and the first six weeks of his presidency, Trump’s opponents worked hard to find any reason to attack him and damage his image. The Democrats have accused him of representing Russia’s interests and even being its agent. These charges are resonating with a good part of American society, and Trump has so far been unable to fight them off effectively. So the overall impression is that the Trump team is at a loss, and giving up its initial plans one by one.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had talks with his Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov in the middle of February at a G20 ministerial meeting, said military co-operation
Russian experts believe Russia was not invited in order to downplay its role and achievements in the fight against IS
between Moscow and Washington in Syria would not be possible until Russia “accepted that not all the opposition (in Syria) are terrorists”. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Russia repeatedly blamed the US for being unwilling to separate the moderate opposition from terrorists.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was prepared to continue fighting IS alone.
“One can discuss the fight against Isis without Russia, but it cannot be defeated without Russia,” said Alexei Pushkov, chairman of a committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament. His comments followed the US State Department’s decision not to invite Russia to a ministerial meeting of the 68 countries that participate in the US-led coalition against Isis, to be held in Washington on March 22.
“Russia will not take part in this meeting, because it is not a member of the global coalition,” State Department spokesperson Mark Toner clarified.
Russian experts believe that Russia was not invited in order to downplay its role and achievements in the fight against IS.
In fact, during just one week in March, the Russian Air Force delivered 452 strikes against IS positions in the east of the Aleppo province, killing more than 600 militants and destroying 16 of their armoured personnel carriers and 41 bakkies with heavy machine guns, said Colonel General Sergey Rudskoi, head of the main operations department of the Russian general staff.
The Syrian government forces fought militants out of 92 towns in an area of almost 500km² largely due to the support of Russian aviation, he said.
And yet, despite official US statements, there is some progress between the US and Russia in fighting terrorists in Syria.
In the middle of last month, the Russian Defence Ministry reported its aviation had successfully attacked militant positions near Raqqa, which is not within Russia’s area of responsibility. This would have been completely impossible several months ago.
Earlier this month, Russian and US generals discussed preliminarily how to set up a communication channel on Syria. On March 7, the chiefs of the General Staffs of Russia, Turkey, and the US met in Antalya to discuss regional security in Syria and Iraq, and ways to improve responses to extremist organisations in the future.
One can only hope that in the face of the real terrorist threat, common sense will prevail over political strife in the US.