The first Meeting between Putin and Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg is likely to be short. Moscow hopes for a turn, which is, so far, failed to materialize. Russian experts dampen expectations.
The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko After his inauguration in January has given the new US President, Donald Trump many of the heads of state and government. In Washington, abroad, long and warm or short and factual. A handshake is, so far, failed to materialize: with Vladimir Putin. On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, the two have a first opportunity to do so. A fixed date was open for so long, but now it’s official: Putin will meet with Trump on Friday, the first day of the summit ascent, said on Tuesday, a spokesman for the foreign Ministry in Moscow.
Putin’s patience with Trump
The expectations of a first top-level meeting between the United States and Russia were seldom so high. Moscow would have seen Putin’s handshake with Trump like a lot of earlier. “It is mostly a normalization of the Dialogue,” said Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russia hopes for a fresh start in the strained relations, since the Russian annexation of Crimea from a low point to the next. Trump fed Moscow’s hopes that he praised during the election campaign Putin as a strong leader several times, and a better relationship with Moscow, promised.
A turning point is, so far, failed to materialize. Trump is politically for months, under pressure due to alleged Russian interference in the election campaign in his favor, what both he, as well as Moscow. The new US Administration maintained the sanctions against Russia from trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama is in power, and recently introduced new.
Moscow, showed understanding for Trump, and explained his reluctance with the inner political power struggle in the USA and pressure from his opponent. “We are patient”, this sentence again, Putin repeated in relation to Washington again and again. It is a fact that Russia refrained from any criticism of Trump avoided and on new against the use of sanctions. As a Trump, during the NATO summit in Brussels in may of a “Russian threat” language, responded Putin left emphasized. There was nothing Special, the Russian President said in an Interview.
Lavrov: It is a normalization of the Dialogue
Muted Expectations
But behind the Scenes have spread disillusionment, believes Liliya Schewzowa. Already since the end of February to have the Moscow foreign policy expert, pessimistic settings in Kremlin circles of felt. “Putin stood with an outstretched Hand and waited for Trumps initiatives,” says Schewzowa, who is currently working for the British think-tank Chatham House. “But he has probably realized, bluntly, that Trump is an insane politician who will deal with Moscow hard.” So, the US President had shown already at strike with cruise missiles in Syria, that he gave of the attitude of the Obama administration. Also as an Energy superpower, with global deliveries of liquefied natural gas, will he make Russia competitive.
“It’s a first Meeting on the sidelines of a summit is a Meeting, not a bilateral,” says Ivan Timofeev of the Russian Council for foreign policy, a government-launched network of experts. A direct conversation between Putin and Trump was “long overdue”. “The most Important thing is to personally meet and establish contacts,” says Timofeev. A breakthrough in Hamburg was not to be expected.
Also Liliya Schewzowa says, a handshake and an agreement about future contacts would be a success: “Whether it is the two heads of state manage to establish a mechanism for Overcoming mutual mistrust: you Meet will be measured.”
The editorial recommends
G20: the summit, full of contradictions
On 7. and 8. July meeting of the heads of state and government of the 20 leading economic Nations in Hamburg. Angela Merkel will have to do as the hostess hands full. So much disagreement was never. (03.07.2017)
Putin hopes for better relations with the United States
Not least because of the allegation of election interference, the relationship between the two superpowers and very excited. The President of Russia is sufficient to symbolically Hand, but from the U.S. Senate comes up sharp against the wind. (15.06.2017)
Trump Poroshenko meets Putin?
For Kiev it is a Sensation: U.S. President Donald Trump receives perhaps the Ukrainian colleague Petro Poroshenko, even before his first Meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The expectations are high. (19.06.2017)
Terror, Syria, Ukraine
Moscow’s priorities during the interview, in Hamburg, reveal the desire, to look for similarities and to avoid dispute. So Putin is going to talk primarily about the fight against Terror with Trump, said a spokesman for the Russian foreign Ministry: “Without the cooperation between Russia and the United States of the terrorist is to defeat.”
It is likely that a joint struggle against the terrorist militia “Islamic state” (IS) in Syria and Iraq. Most recently, there were tensions, as the Western Alliance under US leadership had shot down a Syrian fighter plane. Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military, rose in Protest of an agreement with the United States, to inform each other about movements of the air force. To put this agreement in force, would be an important task for Putin and Trump at their Meeting in Hamburg, believes Liliya Schewzowa.
From their point of view, Russia had made with the so-called “de-escalation zones” for Syria the United States is already “a gift”: “But America has not perceived it as a gift and is not yet ready to support it.”
In addition, Moscow also wants to speak in Hamburg on the subject of nuclear weapons control. Ivan Timofeev assumes that both sides are interested in it because of North Korea. In the case of Ukraine, however, the experts expect a breakthrough. A solution to the conflict, the Kiev and the West, Moscow accuse, not at the Moment seems to be in sight.