Considering Russia appeared to get most of what it wanted in terms of the agenda-setting, length, and other aspects of the encounter, CNN’s Jim Scuitto seemed to paint Friday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as a win for the latter.
Filling in as host on Wolf Friday, the network’s chief national security correspondent asked reporter Matthew Chance to weigh in on whether Putin was indeed the victor.
“Russia had been pushing for a one on one meeting with Trump,” Scuitto said. “Even a longer, perhaps a more formal meeting. The fact this went on longer, it’s private, would that be seen as something of a victory for Vladimir Putin?”
Chance said it was, adding the caveat that a pretty low bar had been set by Russian state media.
“I think so,” Chance said. “Because there were pretty low expectations here in Russia and in the Kremlin about what this first face-to-face meeting could achieve. The state media was saying, ‘Look, if they just agree to meet again, it’d be considered success.'”
Chance also noted that the fact that Russian election interference was not included specifically as a topic (rather, the nebulous topic of “cybercrime” was discussed.) was also deliberate on Russia’s part.
“Of course, [Trump has] been coming under a lot of pressure domestically…to raise these allegations of Russia meddling allegedly in the…democratic process in the United States, in the election that swept him to power. So perhaps this is the Russian way of acknowledging that that issue may have been addressed. But the Russian position has always been the same on this. They categorically denied they had any involvement in manipulating the election result.”
Watch above, via CNN.
[featured image via screengrab]
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