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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Trump says Putin ‘competitor’, not enemy
2018-07-13
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
described Russia’s Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
on Thursday as a "competitor" rather than an "enemy" and said he expected they would get along well when they hold their first summit next week.

Speaking before leaving Brussels where he met NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
leaders, Trump repeated an earlier remark that his meeting with Putin might be the easiest part of a trip that included the summit of the Western military alliance and will also take him to Britannia.

"I think we’ll get along well. But ultimately he’s a competitor. He’s representing Russia. I’m representing the United States. So in a sense we’re competitors, not a question of friend or enemy. He’s not my enemy," Trump said.

"Hopefully some day, maybe he’ll be a friend. It could happen but I don’t know him very well."

Trump avoided criticizing Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea or calling Putin a threat when asked, saying: "I don’t want him to be, and that’s I guess why we have NATO."

Trump’s comparatively warm words about Putin were particularly noteworthy given the harsh criticism he leveled at allies during the NATO summit, when he repeatedly berated European countries for spending too little on defense.

He reserved his strongest criticism for Germany, with what one senior diplomat from one of Washington’s NATO allies described as a "cold-blooded" assault.

While he criticized plans for a big new Russian pipeline to Germany, provoking a rebuke from Moscow, his ire was directed at Chancellor Angela Merkel
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems ..
"I don’t like the pipeline," Trump said, bemoaning what he said were billions of dollars Russia would reap from the project. "But maybe we will get along with the group that we are protecting against, I think that is a real possibility. As you know I am meeting with Putin," he added.

Posted by:Fred

#6  I'd suggest that we're in an analagous situation wrt Russia at the moment. Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain

"What do you have to lose."
Posted by: Besoeker   2018-07-13 17:55  

#5  If you read Churchill's memoirs on the leadup to WW2 you'll find that he thought one of the major blunders of the allies was their inability or unwillingness to secure the cooperation, or at least the neutrality, of Mussolini in the battle against Hitler.

I'd suggest that we're in an analagous situation wrt Russia at the moment.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2018-07-13 17:47  

#4  Oh, these are enemies general of the human kind.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2018-07-13 14:23  

#3  vs the Obama-Clinton-Kerry 'they're just misunderstood fellow travelers on the Left'?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2018-07-13 08:47  

#2  But ultimately he’s a competitor. He’s representing Russia. I’m representing the United States. So in a sense we’re competitors, not a question of friend or enemy.

A grownup speaks.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2018-07-13 03:36  

#1  A distinction without a difference.
Posted by: Raj   2018-07-13 00:25  

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