From Robert A. Levine at The Moderate Voice:
Presidents Trump and Putin will be meeting in Helsinki, Finland on July 16 after Trump attends the NATO summit and visits England. This would normally be news, but the real news is the
extraordinary aspect of this meeting as Trump will be meeting Putin alone. There will be a Russian interpreter, but no other Americans present. To say these unprecedented arrangements are strange is to completely miss the possible ramifications. Trump has already gone out of his way to praise Putin and Russia, wants to have Russia rejoin the Group of Seven, called to congratulate Putin on his election, and wants to lift some of the sanctions on Russia. In fact, he has not utilized all of the sanctions on Russia that Congress enacted and asked Trump to impose. Since the time of his election, for some reason Trump has treated Putin and Russia extremely gingerly, as if he is afraid to upset Putin. Trump has also angered our allies by declaring that Russia’s absorption of Crimea by military means was reasonable since most Crimeans speak Russian.
But why is Trump meeting Putin alone? With no other Americans there, Trump will be able to emerge from the meeting free to say anything he wants about what transpired. No one will be able to contradict him. With no advisers in the room, Trump will be able to make any secret deals he and Putin want, even though Trump may not recognize that it does not benefit America and in fact damages the nation. Why is Trump omitting advisers and Russian specialists from the meeting? Why is there no American interpreter to tell Trump about some of the nuances of what is being said? Will there be a tape made of the meeting that will be released immediately afterwards so that its contents cannot be altered?