GOP Lawmakers Set High Bar for Potential Trump-Putin Meeting
By Jenna Lifhits (weeklystandard.com) / June 21 2018
Senators would want the president to talk about Syria, Ukraine, and election meddling.
The White House announced Thursday that National Security Adviser John Bolton would be heading to Moscow next week to discuss a potential meeting with Vladimir Putin, which could take place in July.
While Republican lawmakers are open to engagement, they nearly ran out of breath listing the issues they want the president to raise.
South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said he wants to see “a very stern directive toward Putin that we’d like to work with you, but we’re not going to sit on the sidelines and watch you dismember democracies.” And, he added, “a stern warning that if you continue to interfere in our election process, you’re going to pay a heavy, heavy price.”
“Anything short of that would be a sign of weakness in the eyes of Putin,” he said.
Florida senator Marco Rubio, like Graham, recognized the necessity of meeting with adversaries as well as allies. He ticked off a list of topics he would want on the agenda.
“There’s no shortage of issues to raise,” he said. “Where do I start? Ukraine, Crimea, interference in elections, the role they play in the Middle East in supporting Assad’s war crimes.”
The ongoing conflict in Syria, which Russia has abetted with its support of Assad, was on almost every lawmaker’s list.
“I don’t know where to begin on my list of what [should] be talked about,” said Ohio senator Rob Portman. “What Russia is doing in Syria, what Russia is doing on the eastern border of Ukraine, where I was only a couple of months ago, … what Russia is doing with regard to disinformation around the world.”
“I’d like to see them talk about election meddling, I’d like to see them talk about ending the war in Syria, I would like to talk, frankly, about trade,” said Louisiana senator John Kennedy. “I would like to hear Mr. Putin say, the election meddling is going to stop. It’s going to stop with the U.S., he will no longer meddle in French elections or German elections or referenda in the U.K.”
Trump has long expressed a desire to improve relations with Russia. He said earlier this month that Russia should be allowed back into the G-7 group of leading economies. Moscow was kicked out in 2014 over its illegal annexation of Crimea.
While the Trump administration has taken a hard line against the Kremlin with economic and diplomatic penalties, the president himself has avoided being vocally critical of the regime. He and Putin have exchanged praise for one another.
The two met formally last July at the G-20 summit, a meeting that attracted some criticism. Garry Kasparov, writing for THE WEEKLY STANDARD, said the following:
The mere scheduling of this friendly chat handed Putin a PR victory, which the Kremlin-controlled media exploited gleefully. Not only was the Russian dictator not isolated or under pressure for invading Ukraine, enabling Bashar al-Assad’s genocide in Syria, and interfering in the U.S. presidential election, but the American president announced that it was an honor to meet with him.
Even so, some Republicans have confidence that the president will be tough on Putin in the meeting. Kennedy pushed back on the notion that the president has not been consistently, vocally critical of the Kremlin. He pointed to the administration’s economic penalties on Russian figures and the airstrikes against Assad.
“In politics, as in life, you have to watch what people do, not what they say,” he said. “And well done is a lot better than well spoken.”
