Meeting of Trump and Putin: how presidents alone decided the fate of the world

Today the Russia-US summit is taking place in Helsinki, during which Russian President Vladimir Putin met privately with American leader Donald Trump. These are the first full-format talks between the two leaders, and they are taking place on neutral territory - Finland - two days after the United States named 12 Russian officers accused of interfering in the US presidential election.

Press conference of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of a bilateral meeting available at this link.

So, the meeting about which the whole world speaks, took place, reports Air force. After talking in private with the president of Russia, Donald Trump said that this was a good start.

The meeting between Putin and Trump in Helsinki was scheduled for 13:00, but the US President's motorcade drove into the courtyard of the presidential palace at approximately two in the afternoon. The American president arrived from the hotel, and the Russian one from the airport. Putin was late for the meeting, but had to wait another 20 minutes for Trump.

“We talked on the phone and met several times at various international events,” Putin said at the beginning of the dialogue. In turn, the US President congratulated the Russian leader on the successful holding of the World Cup. Trump noted that there is an opportunity to improve relations between the two countries.

“Getting along with Russia is a good thing,” he said, and said he would discuss nuclear security issues with Putin.

“We are two countries that have more than 90% of the nuclear potential, and this is not a good thing. Therefore, everything must be done to improve the situation on this issue,” said the US President. In addition, he said, it is planned to discuss trade issues and issues related to China.

“We will have the opportunity to improve our relationship. We haven’t had the opportunity to do this for two years,” Trump complained.

The open part of the negotiations tete-a-tete Putin and Trump completed the handshake. They did not answer the questions of journalists.

First negotiations

Since being elected US President, Trump has met Putin only twice - in July 2017 at the G20 summit in Hamburg, when they spoke for two hours, and then in November at the APEC summit in Vietnam, when the conversation lasted only minutes.

A few hours before the start of the meeting in Helsinki, Trump wrote on Twitter that now relations between Moscow and Washington are worse than ever “thanks to the stupidity and stupidity” of the previous US leadership.

Photo: Twitter

The official Twitter account of the Russian Foreign Ministry responded to Trump’s post: “We agree.”

Photo: Twitter

The day before, a protest rally dedicated to the meeting between Putin and Trump took place in Helsinki. About 2,5 thousand people took part in it. The protests continued on Monday, but were not as large-scale, BBC correspondents report from the capital of Finland. The whole city is covered in posters, screens and billboards telling people that Putin and Trump are infringing on media freedom; However, these protests are smaller in scale than the demonstration in London that greeted the American leader during his official visit to the UK.

Breakfast in the Hall of Mirrors

The fact that the 16 July in Helsinki will host a summit with the participation of the presidents of Russia and the United States, was announced after the visit to Moscow of Trump's national security adviser John Bolton.

According to the schedule specified in the #HELSINKI2018 mobile app, intended for journalists accredited to the summit, the meeting between Putin and Trump should last about three hours, taking into account the joint press conference.

The Finnish Foreign Ministry previously clarified that Putin and Trump will meet at the presidential palace, where they will be officially greeted by Sauli Niinistö, and then proceed to the Gothic Hall for a tete-a-tete conversation. This will be followed by a larger working breakfast in the Hall of Mirrors, followed by a joint press conference between Trump and Putin at the palace.

At 16:30, according to the schedule, Putin is scheduled to meet with Finnish President Niinistö. Trump's meeting with Niinistö took place earlier in the morning. As Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with RT television, there are no plans to sign a joint statement following the meeting. However, the press conference could be “very informative for an army of journalists,” the Kremlin spokesman noted.

“No statement is planned; this, in fact, is not a mandatory attribute of such meetings. The heads of state are planning to hold a press conference together, where they will make statements, only oral ones,” Peskov clarified.

On Friday, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said that the leaders of the two countries do not plan to accept final documents at the meeting, but can give appropriate instructions to their delegations.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, earlier the Russian side handed over to the American side a draft joint statement following the summit. According to the publication's sources in US government agencies, Washington was ready to take it as a basis, but it was important for the American side that the statement reflected the White House's concerns about Russia's alleged interference in the US presidential elections.

New Müller charges

On July 13, Office of Special Prosecutor Robert Muller filed new accusations as part of an investigation into interference with US elections. 12 employees of the two divisions of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) were accused of multi-level hacking of computer systems, as well as theft of documents and personal data.

The next day, CBS aired an interview with Trump, in which he said that he was going to the meeting with Putin “with low expectations.” Asked whether he would ask Putin to extradite those suspected of meddling in the US election, Trump said he had not thought about it yet.

"I could. I didn't think about it. But, of course, I will ask about it,” Trump said.

Why did Trump want to meet with Putin one on one?

One American official offered three reasons why the White House asked the Russian side to hold an extended one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin, writes CNN. According to him, the request for such a format has been discussed over the past few months.

Trump wanted to talk to the Russian leader in private, in order to establish closer relations at the level of world leaders (for the same reason, he expressed a desire to meet in the same format with Kim Jong-un in Singapore).

Earlier, Donald Trump made angry statements about the leakage of information after confidential meetings with world leaders, and therefore told assistants that he did not want a repetition of this situation at a meeting with Putin. Trump does not need those who could build a tougher line of communication with Russia, cutting off or interrupting him in communication with the President of the Russian Federation.

What did the presidents say about each other?

Donald Trump made several statements praising Putin, writes with the BBC.

“Putin was a leader much more than our president was a leader,” Trump said in 2016, referring to his predecessor Barack Obama.

Last year, Trump called Putin a “tough nut to crack.” In March of this year, he congratulated the Russian president on his election victory, contrary to the recommendations of his advisers. Vladimir Putin was much more cautious in his assessments, calling Trump a bright and talented person.

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