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Expectations Are Low for Trump-Putin Summit

by Steve Herman

   HELSINKI, FINLAND --

   A summit between the leaders of the United States and Russia, scheduled
   Monday for this Baltic port city, appears to have no firm goals. But it
   is expected that U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President
   Vladimir Putin will discuss a wide range of issues, from nuclear arms
   reduction to the war in Syria, in which Washington and Moscow back
   opposing forces.

   "That would be a tremendous achievement if we could do something on
   nuclear proliferation," Trump told reporters alongside British Prime
   Minister Theresa May on Friday.

   Ahead of the encounter with Putin, the U.S. president is spending two
   days at his private club in Turnberry, Scotland:

   Looming over the summit is Friday's indictment of 12 Russians charged
   with hacking into Democrats' computers ahead of the 2016 presidential
   election won by Trump.

   The [1]indictment alleges that members of the Russian military agency
   GRU stole data from the computer networks of Democratic Party
   organizations and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

   "The goal of the conspirators was to have an impact on the election,"
   U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters on Friday.

   Before the indictment was announced, Trump vowed to raise the issue of
   Russian meddling in U.S. elections with Putin.

   "I will absolutely firmly ask the question," the president said on
   Friday in England.

   A day after the indictment was returned, Trump, on Twitter, blamed the
   administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, for not taking action:

   Trump linked the federal government investigation of Russian
   interference to the "deep state," a reference to an unproven conspiracy
   of a clandestine network among government bureaucrats and intelligence
   agencies.

   Special counsel Robert Mueller has now indicted or secured guilty pleas
   from 32 people, including four former Trump advisers, and three Russian
   companies. Trump terms the investigation a "rigged witch hunt."

   A number of top Democrats implored the president to call off the summit
   with Putin because of the latest indictments. White House officials
   with the president in Scotland said there was no chance of a
   cancellation.

   While host Finland is a partner in the West's North Atlantic Treaty
   Organization, it is not a full-fledged member of the defense pact.

   Independent from neighboring Russia for the past century, Finland,
   despite being a member of the European Union, maintains a pragmatic
   relationship with its larger neighbor while expanding its ties with the
   West, making it a fitting venue for a summit between Trump and Putin.

   "Finland is one of those countries that both the United States and
   Russia appreciates," explained Finnish Defense Forces Lieutenant
   Colonel Jyri Raitasalo, a professor of war studies at the Finnish
   National Defense University. "It's not involved in many of these most
   intense struggles between Russia and the West."

   Finland shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia. It, along with
   NATO's new member states on the eastern flank, is increasingly worried
   about Trump's critical comments about the alliance and will be
   nervously watching the summit between Trump and Putin, according to
   Raitasalo.

   The two leaders, according to diplomatic sources, are set to meet one
   on one, each with his interpreter present, for 30 minutes to an hour.
   Wider talks involving aides will then follow.

   NATO members "are really worried, understandably so," Raitasalo told
   VOA, adding that the Helsinki talks "could open up new negotiations on
   a lower level that could actually achieve something. But I think it
   could take time. In most cases, a couple of hours between heads of
   states that haven't seen each other for a time and discussed things
   properly, you can't achieve much in several hours. But it could be a
   good start."

   According to former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, "Putin
   wants a lovefest."

   In a tweet, McFaul said, "To achieve victory, all Putin needs is for
   Trump to say nice things about him and signal that he wants to move on
   and forget about Russia's past belligerent actions over the last three
   years."

   VOA correspondent Bill Gallo contributed to this report.

   Steve Herman is VOA's White House Bureau Chief.

References

   1. https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download