Kissinger to be Us/russia pacifier?
GERMANY: Donald Trump is considering deploying Henry Kissinger, the former United States secretary of state, to reset Washington’s relations with Russia.
The news that Kissinger, 93, has been consulted by Trump and may play a part in crafting US policy has been welcomed by the Kremlin.
Kissinger is already said to have advised Trump to roll out a plan to end sanctions on Moscow that would ‘‘recognise Russia’s dominance’’ in the former Soviet states of Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan.
According to Bild, the German newspaper, Western intelligence services believe the move would be part of a broader strategy formulated by Kissinger under which Russia would withdraw from the east of Ukraine in exchange for the West being ‘‘no longer bothered about the Crimea issue’’.
Kissinger has close ties with President Vladimir Putin and he has met Trump since his election win. Dmitri Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said the Kremlin would welcome Kissinger having a role in the Trump administration.
Kissinger, who served as national security adviser under presidents Nixon and Ford, first encountered Putin in the 1990s and has visited him since he entered the Kremlin in 2000, including in February this year. This month Kissinger described the Russian leader, who is a former KGB spy, as ‘‘a man with a great sense of connection, an inward connection, to Russian history as he sees it’’.
He has urged the West to shoulder part of the blame for the conflict in Ukraine. In 2014 Kissinger said Crimea was ‘‘a special case’’ and Russia’s annexation of the peninsula was ‘‘not a move toward global conquest’’.
Trump said during the election campaign he would be ‘‘looking at’’ recognising Russia’s annexation of Crimea and lifting US sanctions on Moscow.
Kissinger and the presidentelect might differ in style – a polished diplomat and a brash populist – but they have talked on numerous occasions.
Kissinger is a controversial figure. He won the Nobel peace prize in 1973 for his efforts to end the Vietnam War, but has been criticised for his involvement in US bombing in Cambodia. In Moscow he is remembered as one of the architects of detente in the 1970s.
Trump yesterday appointed an experienced hand from the George W Bush era to his national security circle, and a figure from the Trump Organisation to make international deals.
Thomas Bossert will become an assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, and will work closely with Trump’s pick for national security adviser, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. He previously served as deputy assistant to the president for homeland security under Bush.
The president-elect also appointed one of his main advisers on Us-israel relations as special representative for international negotiations. Jason Greenblatt has worked for the Trump Organisation for more than two decades and serves as its executive vicepresident and chief legal officer.
In New York yesterday afternoon, police hastily cleared the lobby of Trump Tower to investigate an unattended backpack, only to find it contained children’s toys.
Meanwhile, Trump’s plan to dissolve his charitable foundation before he takes office to eliminate any conflicts of interest appears to be harder than he thought.
The New York attorney general’s office said yesterday that Trump cannot dismantle his charitable foundation because state prosecutors are probing whether he personally benefited from its spending. – The Times, AP