On July 16, 2018, an unusual event occurred in American politics. After meeting Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Donald Trump assured during a joint press conference that he had “no reason” not to believe his Russian counterpart when he assured him that Russia did not attempt to influence the 2016 presidential elections. Of course, Putin was lying: Russia intervened in these elections as it did around the world, through propaganda on social networks, the activation of hundreds of thousands of robots and hacking campaigns.
Russia was behind the leak of emails from Hillary Clinton and Russia clearly sided against the Democratic Party candidate in favor of a man who, after all, had been shaped politically by Steve Bannonone of the Kremlin’s great propagandists throughout the world. But the problem went further: Trump’s statements were not only damningly innocent, but they contradicted and called into question the conclusions drawn by the INC. and other US intelligence agencies.
In short, between the words of a declared enemy of the West and the sweeping investigation into his own security services, the President of the United States publicly found himself with the former. This is obviously the version that benefited him the most and the one that least called into question his victory, otherwise incontestable, in the electoral college of November 2016.
The hasty condemnations of India and Pakistan
Many feared that seven and a half years later the situation would repeat itself. Last Monday, the Kremlin, through its usual spokespersons, viz. Dmitry Peskov and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrovshowed his indignation at the attack with dozens of drones against one of Vladimir Putin’s residences. The Russian president himself publicly insisted on this version, despite the absence of any evidence. Even though Ukraine denied it, within a few hours, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modiand the Pakistani Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, condemned on social networks an attack which, strictly speaking, it was not known whether it had taken place or not.
The worst happened when that same Monday, at the end of his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu At Mar-A-Lago, US President Donald Trump appeared to join the conspiracy chorus. When asked about it, Trump initially said he didn’t know anything, then admitted that he did, that he found it disturbing and that he himself Vladimir Putin He confirmed it by telephone. When a journalist informed him that there was no data to corroborate the accusation against UkraineTrump simply shrugged his shoulders in a gesture that seemed to say the same thing as in Helsinki: Why would he want to fool me?
The implications of such credulity went far beyond the hard facts. Much of what is negotiated as a peace agreement concerns the security guarantees that Ukraine receives in exchange for a cession of territory. Although kyiv and Moscow disagree on how much of Donbass Ukraine should give up and it is difficult for some to agree to leave it Kramatorsk And Slavyansk as if nothing had happened or if others accepted that the current line of contact marks the border, the truth is that these guarantees depend on American confidence.
In other words, if Washington is willing to believe that Ukraine has violated any of the conditions if only Russia says so, The future looks rather bleak for Zelensky and yours. Perhaps this is why Moscow has always refused the presence of Western verifiers in disputed areas. Facing Trump alone is much easier for them.
Correction via ‘New York Post’
However, the Kremlin’s refusal to present any evidence of the alleged attack was joined this Wednesday by the CIA report which excluded that this had taken place. The director of the Agency himself, John Ratcliffeappointed in January by Trump, personally called the president to inform him of the results of the investigation. This time, Trump didn’t leave him embarrassed and walked back his original condemnation… even if he did it in a somewhat peculiar way.
Instead of sending a statement to the media or making any public statement, he simply reposted a message published by the newspaper on his social network Truth. New York Post in which it was assured that it had all been an invention and that this invention showed that what really stood in the way of peace was the Kremlin. He New York Post It is a resolutely Trumpist and populist newspaper… but, on the Ukrainian question, it has defended Zelensky and kyiv from the start.
Either way, we need to understand this repost of Trump like admit that Putin lied to him…if at some point he called him, which seems strange. The consequences that this snub will have on the future of the negotiations are difficult to assess at present, but they will probably not go beyond the specific angerif it comes. There is too many things linking Trump to Russia: admiration for Putin, respect for autocracies and the idea that any pact must be built from pressure on the weakest. In this sense, thinking that Trump – and his team – will change their policy of constant demands on Zelensky and red carpet for Putin seems like too much thinking.
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