Some fear Putin has edge in talks
U.S. diplomats fret former spymaster will get upper hand.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s encounter with Russian leader Vladimir Putin is raising concerns among veteran American diplomats and analysts about a mismatch between a chief executive new to global affairs and a wily former Soviet spymaster experienced in the long game of strategy and statecraft.
Their highly anticipated meeting this week at the Group of 20 summit promises to set the tone for the next four years of U.S.-Russia relations. Putin — who has been president or prime minister of Russia since 1999 — has used his first faceto-face meetings with prior presidents to try to gain the upper hand.
A range of global issues hang in the balance, including continuing sanctions against Russia, checking Putin’s expansionist policies in the Ukraine, halting North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, managing frictions over Syria and Iran and preventing Russian interference in U.S. and European elections.
Any meeting between the two will highlight their very different approaches to personal diplomacy. Putin has shown himself to be a skillful, focused tactician who carefully prepares and is not easily distracted from his goals. Trump is known to shun preparation and instead go with his gut, placing great faith in what he believes to be an ability to read the person sitting across from him. In the case of Putin, who is trained in deception, this could be difficult to do — especially if the Russian leader tries to disarm Trump with praise.
Putin is “professionally prepared to try to manipulate people,” said William Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia under Republican President George W. Bush and now president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “He will come well-equipped, and it’s important that we do that too.”
The White House confirmed Tuesday the meeting is set for Friday afternoon and will be a “normal bilateral meeting.” The two leaders are expected to cover a range of issues in their roughly halfhour session.
Trump hasn’t ruled out raising concerns about cybersecurity and Russian election meddling, which have raised tensions in the relationship, according to a U.S. official familiar with the preparations.
Both sides played down expectations of concrete achievements, portraying the meeting mostly as a chance for the two leaders to take the measure of each other. Trump National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said in a June 29 briefing the U.S. was approaching the meeting with “no specific agenda” while a Russian official said the leaders will focus on the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, the fight against terrorism and Russian requests that the U.S. return Russian diplomatic compounds in New York and Maryland that President Barack Obama seized in retaliation for election meddling.