President Trump lowers expectations for Putin meeting

“I do believe in meetings”, Trump insisted in an interview with CBS News that aired before he touched down in Helsinki.

I asked Point-er Brenna Williams to dig up everything – or as much as she could find – Trump has said about Putin since he was inaugurated in January 2017. “Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out”.

Other members of the Trump administration also looked to tone down prospects for today’s meeting.

Finland has a long legacy of hosting U.S.

“I don’t call it a ‘witch hunt.’ I call it an investigation”.

In terms of election meddling, Baklitsky said Russian Federation would deny – as it long has – interfering in the 2016 USA presidential vote that brought Trump to power.

Putin might try to convince Trump to take a “more flexible” position on war-ravaged Syria in the hope that Washington would be less active in the country, Malashenko said.

But as Trump and Putin prepare to arrive in Helsinki, the source with knowledge of the discussions said there is still no set, organized agenda for the summit. However, their extradition is highly unlikely. “I’m not going in with high expectations”.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in the 2016 election on Friday would appear to raise the stakes for Trump.

“I never thought I would see the day when our American president would stand on the stage with the Russian president and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression”, Sen. “They had bad defences and they were able to be hacked”.

In the CBS interview, Trump also asserted that the GOP was similarly not hacked during the 2016 campaign because the Republican National Committee had better cybersecurity. The summit is expected to touch on a variety of issues, including Russian election meddling, Syria, arms control, Putin’s 2014 takeover of Crimea from Ukraine and sanctions. However, this source believes it’s likely Putin will offer technical assistance, such as expertise in the removal of nuclear material and that Trump may well agree to Russian involvement in some way, which would also be something of a win for Putin.

That attack on the alliance came on the heels of Trump’s jarring appearance at a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Brussels, where he harshly criticized traditional allies over “delinquent” defense spending only to later confirm his commitment to the military alliance that has always been a bulwark against Russian aggression.

“Syria might be a headline because Trump wants it”, said Gabuev, referring to reports that the USA and Israel are urging Russian Federation to curb Iran’s military presence in southern Syria.

Before the summit even began, Trump blamed his own country for the deterioration in relations.

“America and the European Union are best friends”, Mr Tusk wrote.

“He wants to be perceived as the one who makes these decisions, that he makes them unilaterally, that he is the crucial deal-maker”, said William Pomeranz, deputy director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute.

When Trump meets Putin, he will sit down with a disciplined, detail-oriented and experienced Russian leader who has been on the world stage for more than 18 years, in contrast to 18 months in office for Trump.

The grand jury charges shine a brighter spotlight on Trump’s treatment of Putin, who has repeatedly denied Russian Federation sought to skew the election which Trump, a Republican, unexpectedly won.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Trump’s performance sent a message of “weakness” to Moscow.