Indictment of Russian officers puts
pressure on Trump at Putin summit
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[July 14, 2018]
By Jeff Mason
GLASGOW, Scotland (Reuters) - If U.S.
President Donald Trump was inclined to be tentative when raising
election meddling with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, the
indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking in 2016 has
made that approach a much harder sell.
A federal grand jury on Friday alleged that officers of Russia's
military intelligence agency, the GRU, secretly monitored computers and
stole data from the campaign of Trump's former rival, Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The charges put an even greater spotlight on Trump's treatment of Putin,
who has denied making efforts to intervene in the U.S. election that
Trump, a Republican, unexpectedly won.
Trump has called the investigation into whether his campaign colluded
with Moscow a "witch hunt" and has shown an eagerness to get along with
his Russian counterpart, repeatedly referring to the former KGB leader's
denials of such behavior.
“Trump has maybe a little less room to maneuver if he wants to downplay
the issue or pretend that it’s not real," said Jeffrey Mankoff, a Russia
expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International
Studies.
Trump has said he plans to raise the issue. When asked at a news
conference in Britain on Friday whether he would tell Putin to stay out
of U.S. elections, Trump said "yes."
But the president indicated he did not expect much progress on the
issue. "I will absolutely bring that up," Trump told reporters. "I don’t
think you’ll have any 'Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me.'”
Critics said they were skeptical Trump would press the issue at all,
despite the indictments.
“Even with today’s news, we can expect Trump to raise Putin’s attack on
our democracy in a passing, perfunctory way before again taking - or at
least claiming to take - Putin’s denials at face value," said Ned Price,
a former national security council spokesman for President Barack Obama.
Democratic lawmakers urged Trump to cancel the get-together with Putin.
The president is spending the weekend at his golf property in Scotland
before leaving on Sunday for Helsinki, where the meeting is scheduled to
take place.
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir
Putin during the their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in
Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File
Photo/File Photo
The White House said the release of the charges would not affect the
summit.
"The announcement has no impact on Monday’s meeting," said Garrett
Marquis, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
But the meeting, and the extent of Trump's emphasis on election
meddling, could highlight a divide between him and his own advisers,
not to mention other Republicans, about the seriousness of Russia's
activities.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser John
Bolton, at least prior to joining the White House, have both been
more critical of Moscow than the president they serve. And the
administration's broader policy toward Russia is harsher than the
rhetoric employed by Trump, who recently suggested that Moscow be
readmitted to what is now the Group of Seven, since Russia was
kicked out of the bloc of industrialized countries for annexing
Crimea from Ukraine.
"The administration has a pretty good policy towards Russia, just
the president doesn't agree with it," said Michael McFaul, a former
U.S. ambassador to Russia under Obama. "I can't remember a foreign
policy debate that had this kind of disconnect between the president
and literally every other person in his administration."
(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and James Oliphant in
Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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