Putin may not have had much luck in recruiting students from South America [at Dresden University of Technology, East Germany]. But now—three decades later—he was finally going to meet someone the KGB had talent-spotted all those years ago. Putin was meeting President Trump.
—Luke Harding, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win
#putin #trump
How would Trump get on with Putin [at the G20 summit in Hamburg]? It turned out: just great. The two met at a summit get-together that morning and at bilateral talks in the afternoon. This second encounter coincided with a plenary session on climate change. The schedule clash seemed deliberate…”
—Luke Harding, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win
#trump #putin #usa #russia #climatechange
Before the cameras Trump said it was an “honor” to meet Russia’s president. …Putin sat impassively. He waited… Trump extended his hand. Putin paused… And then he took Trump’s outstretched palm. The resulting photo was what Putin had surely intended… It depicted the U.S. president…as…a junior player—seeking approval from the world’s preeminent statesman. Putin looks Trump coolly in the eye. …here was Russia’s leader dominating the international stage again.
—Luke Harding, Collusion
#putin #trump
At dinner spouses were separated. … At some point Trump got up. He sat down again—next to Putin. For the next hour Trump and Putin were deep in conversation. Only one other person was with them, Putin’s personal interpreter. … Trump left his own interpreter behind, in a breach of national security protocol. G20 leaders looked on in amazement.
—Luke Harding, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win
#trump #putin
…Trump’s weirdly deferential behavior toward Putin—his singular reluctance to criticize, his boundless willingness to appease, his desire for face time—were there for all to see. It looked like a kind of thraldom.
—Luke Harding, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win
#trump #putin
At key moments in Trump’s career, when Western banks were reluctant to lend and credit evaporated, income originating from the former Soviet Union appears to have rescued Trump from financial ruin.
—Luke Harding, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win
#trump #russia