President Vladimir Putin showered criticism on the “so-called West,” particularly on Washington, in a speech and question-answer session in Sochi on Oct. 19, leaving foreign-relations analysts in the audience with a rather grim view of the foreseeable future of U.S.-Russia ties. The Russian leader did make a point, however, of blaming the troubled relationship on Congress and President Donald Trump’s predecessors rather than the current administration.

Putin spoke calmly for most of his three or so hours at the Valdai Discussion Club—an annual international gathering of Russia experts, policymakers and journalists—but grew visibly emotional when discussing the Ukraine crisis, showing no readiness for any concessions and blaming the West and pro-Western political forces in Ukraine for both the conflict and the stalemate in implementing the long-stalled Minsk-2 peace accords. In contrast, he was cool and collected when claiming he was not worried about the deployment and training of NATO forces on Russia’s western flank.

In an unusual twist, Putin also repeatedly emphasized his discontent with U.S.-Russian interactions in the area of nuclear security, blaming the U.S. for what he saw as a failure to reciprocate for Russia’s unilateral granting of access to its nuclear weapons facilities in the 1990s. Not only did he reiterate earlier grievances that Washington had taken advantage of Russia’s weakness at the time, but he invoked the perceived one-sidedness of that early cooperation when answering seemingly unrelated questions. One of those concerned Russia’s response if the U.S. declares the American bureaus of state-funded Russian media RT and Sputnik to be “foreign agents” (Putin said the response would be “symmetrical”). This indicates that Americans’ purported betrayal of Russia’s good will on nuclear security is now another official talking point on Russia's list of grievances vis-à-vis the U.S.

The Russian president didn’t face any direct questions on his plans to run for re-election in March and dodged indirect ones, but he did not sound like a man preparing to step down.

His comments concerning the most salient aspects of U.S.-Russian relations are below, paraphrased except for remarks in quotation marks, which are direct speech. The original Russian can be found via this link. The compilation was prepared by RM Staff in Sochi and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Update: The Kremlin's English translation is now available.

I. U.S. and Russian priorities for the bilateral agenda

Nuclear security:

• Basic multi-lateral and bilateral agreements are being "devalued." A few hours ago I was told the U.S. president tweeted about U.S.-Russian cooperation on nuclear issues. This is indeed one of the most important areas of cooperation and the U.S. and Russia bear special responsibility for this on the global arena. In the 1990s several landmark agreements were signed—for example, Nunn-Lugar and the agreement on converting highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low-enriched uranium (LEU). The first one dealt with material protection, control and accounting (MPC&A), decommissioning of subs, etc. Americans paid 620 inspection visits to the "holy of holies" of Russia’s nuclear weapons complex, including enterprises developing weapons-grade plutonium and uranium. The U.S. had access to all secret facilities of that kind in Russia. As part of the HEU/LEU agreement there were 170 more inspection visits by U.S. specialists; they even had American flags up inside some of these top-secret Russian facilities. Five hundred tons of weapons-grade uranium (about the equivalent of 20,000 warheads) were converted into LEU as part of that agreement. This was one of the most significant disarmament achievements in history.
• The Russian side demonstrated unprecedented openness as part of this endeavor. In response, we got our national interests fully ignored, support for separatism in the Caucasus, use of force that bypassed the U.N. Security Council, for example to bomb Yugoslavia and send troops into Iraq. It is clear why: They saw the state of our nuclear complex, our armed forces, and economy.
• In the 2000s we saw a new stage of cooperation where we really achieved a partnership of equals with the U.S. This included the 123 Agreement, but that agreement was then suspended. The Plutonium Management Disposition Agreement was being implemented. We fully implemented that deal, while the Americans completed 70 percent of their MOX production plant, and now the U.S. government is requesting funds to shut down construction. Now they want to dilute and bury plutonium rather than turn into MOX, but that violates the spirit and letter of the agreement. The U.S. has not yet ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and we have. They also withdrew from the ABM Treaty. They have yet to destroy all their chemical weapons; they “remain the only and the most powerful possessor of this type of weapon of mass destruction.”
• We suspended the plutonium disposition agreement because the American side is not doing anything. They did not even warn us that they were violating this treaty. We learned it from the Congressional budget bill.
• It was humiliating when we let you into our nuclear enterprises, hoping the U.S. would reciprocate. But expecting that was stupid.

North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs:

• The situation surrounding North Korea is dangerous. Hints and direct threats of a disarming strike create a dangerous situation. What if the North Koreans had hidden something? North Korea should be treated with respect and war-like rhetoric should be abandoned.
• Russia is fulfilling all UNSC resolutions, but this problem should be solved diplomatically, through dialogue, not arm-twisting. “North Korea should not be backed into a corner.” It is a sovereign state.

Iran’s nuclear program and related issues:

• No significant comments.

Cold War/NATO-Russia relations:

• Our greatest mistake in relations with the West is that we trusted you too much, while your mistake is that you took advantage of this, treating it as weakness.
• We are not worried by U.S./NATO training in Eastern Europe. Let them train. Everything is under control.
• The challenge posed by the USSR spurred many of the West’s 20th-century achievements: improved living standards, the development of a strong middle class, labor and social reforms, the development of education, guarantees of human rights, including the rights of minorities and women, overcoming racial segregation.
• The end of the USSR offered a unique opportunity for a genuinely new chapter in history; unfortunately, "Western partners" divided up “the geopolitical legacy of the Soviet Union, grew convinced of their unquestionable rightness,” “declared themselves the winners of the Cold War” and “began openly interfering in the affairs of sovereign states, exporting democracy” like the Soviet leadership tried to export socialism. We encountered a redistribution of spheres of influence and an expansion of NATO. “Two and a half decades have been lost.”
• We had greater differences in Soviet times, but there was greater respect; no one would pull down flags at Soviet diplomatic institutions.

Missile defense:

• No significant comments.

Nuclear arms control:

• Is nuclear disarmament possible or not? Yes, it is. Yes, Russia wants full nuclear disarmament and will strive for it. However, modern states are developing new weapons that come close to being equal to nuclear weapons. The destructive power of high-precision weapons is coming close to that of nuclear weapons.
• The ABM Treaty has been a cornerstone of strategic stability. We are not planning to exit New START.
• As for the INF Treaty, we have recently heard accusations that Russia is violating it by developing something. Maybe we would have been tempted to do that if we hadn’t developed sea- and air-launched missiles, including the Kalibr. The U.S. has long had such missiles, which made the INF effectively a unilateral disarmament treaty under which the USSR axed land-based missiles. Now we have sea- and air-launched missiles and we feel we’ve simply leveled the playing field. If our American partners want to exit the INF, our response will be “immediate and mirror-like. But we have complied and will continue to comply” with the treaty.

Counter-terrorism:

• There was full support of separatism in the North Caucasus [on the part of the U.S.] and I know this as ex-director of the FSB.

Conflict in Syria:

• We will finish off the terrorists in Syria very soon, but the root causes need to be addressed, including lack of education. Therefore, finishing off terrorists will not eliminate the threat. Negotiations between the government and the opposition promise to be very difficult. One idea is to convene a Congress of Peoples of Syria and that could be a step toward a political resolution and then maybe toward a new constitution, though it is too early to talk about that.
• It is normal that countries’ national interests do not coincide. However, when national interests are advanced at any cost, that leads to harsh conflicts and no problems are solved. Recent examples include events in the Middle East, which has seen coups organized from outside. Some of our counterparts are doing everything they can to ensure there’s permanent chaos in the region; some people still think this chaos can be managed. But the Syrian experience shows that there are alternatives to this overconfident, destructive policy: Russia acts in concert with the legitimate government and other regional powers to fight terrorism. We work with all participants in the Syrian process and respect their interests. Our efforts there generate hope.
• The Astana negotiations are showing signs of progress. The U.S., though not participating directly, plays an important role. We’ve been in constant contact with our American partners on this; it hasn’t always been easy or conflict-free, but the cooperation overall has been more positive than negative.

Cyber security:

• No significant comments.

Elections interference:

• An unprecedented anti-Russia campaign has been launched in the U.S and that campaign has no grounds whatsoever. There is anti-Russian hysteria in the U.S. “Someone lost the election to Mr. Trump, placed all the blame on Russia and launched just unbridled anti-Russia hysteria.”
• The American people voted for Trump. He won honestly.

Energy exports from CIS:

• No significant comments.

Bilateral economic ties:

• No significant comments.

Sanctions:

• The recent U.S. sanctions package “clearly aims to squeeze Russia out of European energy markets” and to force Europe to abandon Russian gas for more expensive U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG). Obstacles are being put up to new pipelines we are building, including Nordstream-2, even though “such a diversification of logistics is economically efficient, advantageous to Europe, [and] serves to enhance its security.”

Other bilateral issues:

• We don’t know whether it would have been easier to work with a President Hillary Clinton. President Trump’s unpredictably is in part due to powerful resistance within the country. He is unable to implement his campaign promises. But we will still work with them. The U.S. is a great power, the world’s largest economic and military power, but our trade with them is negligible, unfortunately. We will work with the U.S. no matter what the difficulties, if they want to. If they don’t want to, we won’t.
• We do have a dialogue with the U.S. on levels of diplomatic, defense and special services in Syria and we achieve results. That experience can be replicated elsewhere.
• Washington and Moscow should “cross out” the past, turn a new page and move forward on the basis of “mutual respect” as equal partners.
• Regarding Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik: We have been told many times that it is not democratic to put pressure on mass media. I am at a loss for words to describe what’s happening to Russia Today. International media directly influence politics in many countries, but that’s natural. As for turning the other cheek, recall what we did to open our nuclear enterprises, opening them fully in hopes of being treated as equal partners, but in vain. The Americans saw the state of our nuclear complex and concluded that weak partners’ interests should not be taken into account. Therefore, we will immediately reciprocate for whatever happens to Russian media in the U.S.

II. Russia’s domestic news

Politics, economy and energy:

• When asked what the winner of the 2018 presidential election should focus on: We need to make Russia flexible and competitive, including the management of its economy. We need to strengthen our defense and perfect our political system. We don’t even realize what big data is. Just recently, a U.S. company began sending offers of pregnancy-related products to a 14-year old girl; a computer analyzed her internet behavior and came to this conclusion.
• Revolution is always the result of a deficit of responsibility, both on the part of those who want to preserve the old order and on the part of the revolutionaries. The results of the October 1917 revolution include both the negative and the positive and the two are tightly intertwined. And it’s worth asking: Could change not have been achieved through gradual evolution? Nonetheless, the revolution led to changes worlwide.
• Asked if a woman can be the next president: “Anything is possible” in Russia.
• When moderator asked him how the Valdai Club could meet next year if Putin is not president: “It’s time to wrap up.”
• Expect 2 percent growth of economy, 3 percent inflation—lowest in post-Soviet Russian history.

Defense and aerospace:

• See "Nuclear arms control" section above.

Security, law-enforcement and justice:

No significant comments.

III. Foreign affairs, trade and investment

World order, globalization:

• The pace of events is so fast that you have to react all the time and quickly. Qualitatively new processes are evolving in all spheres (e.g., technological revolution). Competition for places in the global hierarchy is getting increasingly acute. The speed of change is so great that the scientific-technological factor becomes the crucial one in the military and security spheres and these changes are irreversible.
• Scientific-technological progress, like robotics, leads to dramatic shifts. How do we ensure employment in the period of automation? Could humans lose control over AI? The importance of science and technology is increasing, acquiring a political character as well. No modern technologies can ensure sustainable development on their own. It has to be accompanied by social responsibility.
• Growing inequality helps leads millions of people, entire peoples even, that the world is unfair; this in turn leads to radicalization.

Russia’s general foreign policy and relations with “far abroad” countries:

• The situation in Spain is an internal matter for Spain and should be resolved in accordance with Spanish law. But it’s the result of processes lasting for centuries. Why didn’t anyone think about this before? And why was the disintegration of several European states welcomed with glee in years past? It was in part due to political expediencies and a desire to court “the big brother in Washington” that some players unconditionally supported the independence of Kosovo and now, there you go, we have Catalonia. In the view of some of our international colleagues, there are the “right” kind of freedom fighters and there are “separatists.” That’s the double standard. Apologists of globalization once assured us that globalization would lead to fewer conflicts through economic interdependence, but that’s not the case, is it?
• Recognition of Kosovo has opened a Pandora’s Box.
• We need to abandon the old agenda and start looking forward, stop looking back. We need an honest conversation by the international community. There’s no alternative to the U.N. The U.N. Security Council veto was designed to avoid conflict among world powers. Reform of the U.N. should be incremental. Regional organizations should act under the aegis of the U.N.

China:

• On Russian-Chinese relations: Xi and I call each other friends because it reflects our human relationship. The interests of our countries often coincide or are close. We always reach an agreement on any disputable issue and both countries benefit from these agreements.

Ukraine:

• The ball is in Europe’s court, not Russia’s. It is because of the previous European Commission’s unconstructive position that Ukraine went through a coup. Disturbances emerged and were fully supported by the E.U. and U.S. Both supported forceful seizure of power.
• Today’s situation in Ukraine is the result of a coup and Europe is guilty because it supported the coup.
• We signed Minsk-2, but Ukraine is sabotaging that agreement and everyone knows that. I don’t see how the president of Ukraine can implement Minsk-2, but there is no other way, so we will support Minsk-2 and the Normandy format.
• On restoring Ukraine’s control over its border: Closing the border between eastern Ukraine and Russia before special status is given to Donbass and an amnesty is implemented would lead to a massacre on the scale of Srebrenica. Russia voluntarily gave up territory upon agreeing to the independence of former Soviet republics. We want to have friendly relations with Ukraine. What do you imagine would have happened if the E.U. clinched a deal with Ukraine on free trade that would have turned Ukraine into a free gateway for EU goods into Russia, because Ukraine had free trade with Russia? It is not enough to turn to Russia; pressure should be put on Ukraine.
• Russia will ease granting of citizenship to one million Ukrainian refugees.
• Even the most complex knots should be untied rather than cut and that includes Ukraine.

Russia’s other post-Soviet neighbors:

• No significant comments.

Photo credit: Kremlin press service

Two years ago this month, Russia launched its military intervention in Syria. This step was almost instantly criticized by the Obama administration, with the U.S. president warning that Vladimir Putin is dragging his country into a quagmire. The Russian military operations in Syria have proved at times to be brutal and indiscriminate, causing many civilian deaths—nearly 4,000 in the first year of its campaign alone, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which continues to blame Russia for scores of civilian deaths with grim regularity. But has Russia gotten stuck in a quagmire or has it achieved any of its goals? Take a look at this presentation that Russia Matters director Simon Saradzhyan gave on Moscow’s objectives and interests in Syria shortly after Russian warplanes launched their first strikes and decide for yourself.

Russian Interests and Objectives Underlying Intervention in Syria

Photo credit: Russian Defense Ministry photo shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

With all the talk lately of a “new Cold War” between the U.S. and Russia, historian Odd Arne Westad’s latest book is a timely one. “The Cold War: A World History” examines the conflict from its ideological roots in the late 19th century through the collapse of the Soviet Union. In it, Westad offers keen insights into how the Cold War and its dénouement have given rise to the current conflict between Russia and the West, as well as the ascendance of China and the emergence of a multipolar world order. Westad, who teaches at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, recently discussed these topics in a book talk and in an essay called “The Cold War and America’s Delusion of Victory” in the New York Times. What follow are key points from the talk and the essay, some paraphrased and some directly quoted.

• “The Cold War: A World History” is “not an attempt to say, ‘If we only understand how the Cold War ideological divide works, we will understand everything about the 20th century,’” Westad said at the talk. “But I would probably argue the opposite: If we want to understand the Cold War, we have to understand how it fits into the 20th century.”
• Westad examines the Cold War through three significant turning points:
  • The split between social democrats in Europe and communists, which allowed the former to continue to develop without being labeled communist.
  • The Korean War, the first hot war of the conflict, which led to the militarization of the two superpowers on a global scale.
  • And the 1970s—a decade typically seen as a moment of American weakness, but in fact a time when the globalization of capital allowed the U.S. to buy into markets in Asia, while the U.S.S.R. remained isolated.
• As China increasingly embraced the free market, the space for the Soviet Union to operate narrowed—which would prove to be a major factor in its collapse. Westad takes issue with the idea that Ronald Reagan’s hardline stance toward the Soviet Union was the main reason for its demise. While this may have contributed to Moscow’s isolation, Westad notes that Reagan was a willing negotiator on everything from nuclear weapons to regional conflicts.
• The flawed belief that the Cold War had been won by the West would have lasting consequences. The West bought into two versions of post-Cold War triumphalism, Westad writes in his essay: “First was the Clinton version, which promoted a prosperity agenda of market values on a global scale. Its lack of purpose in international affairs was striking, but its domestic political instincts were probably right: Americans were tired of foreign entanglements and wanted to enjoy ‘the peace dividend.’ As a result, the 1990s was a lost opportunity for international cooperation, particularly to combat disease, poverty and inequality. The second was the Bush version. Where President Bill Clinton emphasized prosperity, President George W. Bush emphasized predominance.”
• U.S. actions in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East can be directly traced to this flawed understanding: “As America entered a new century, its main aim should have been to bring other nations into the fold of international norms and the rule of law, especially as its own power diminishes. Instead, the United States did what declining superpowers often do: engage in futile, needless wars far from its borders, in which short-term security is mistaken for long-term strategic goals,” Westad writes.
• There were also lost opportunities in the 1990s for greater cooperation with Russia. More should have been done to “link Russia in” with the European Union, especially through security cooperation. “Both the West and Russia would have been considerably more secure today if the chance for Russia to join the European Union, and possibly even NATO, had at least been kept open in the 1990s,” Westad writes. (In remarks made last year, Westad noted that, in hindsight, the biggest problem in the 1990s with regard to Eastern Europe was the lack of will to build structures in which Russia could participate, especially in terms of economic integration.)
• As a result of this flawed approach, America is “less prepared than it could have been to deal with the big challenges of the future: the rise of China and India, the transfer of economic power from West to East, and systemic challenges like climate change and disease epidemics,” Westad writes.
• On the Russian side, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a disaster and the “ultimate tragedy,” as Westad noted in his talk. The U.S.S.R. had gone from a superpower to nearly irrelevant in the span of years, naturally leading to feelings of discontent among Russians, who had been under repression for decades and now faced dire economic woes and a complete collapse of familiar institutions. “The collapse left Russians feeling déclassé and usurped,” Westad writes. Meanwhile, the West applauded the economic reforms under Boris Yeltsin, which were disastrous for Russia. In this context, the rise of Vladimir Putin and his promise to restore Russia’s lost glory is understandable.
• The prime beneficiary of the end of the Cold War is China, which is now well integrated into the world economy and is directly challenging U.S. hegemony. “Russia and China, unlike the Soviet Union, are not likely to seek isolation or global confrontation,” Westad writes. “They will attempt to nibble away at American interests and dominate their regions. But neither China nor Russia is willing or able to mount a global ideological challenge backed by military power. Rivalries may lead to conflicts, or even local wars, but not of the systemic Cold War kind.”
• Westad cautions against a false romanticism of the Cold War period. His book is meant in part to show younger generations that it was in fact “a dismal epoch” in history, he said. There was little sense of security and balance; rather, it was an incredibly dangerous time, with the superpowers often poised on the brink of war.

Kevin Dolye is a masters-degree candidate at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and a student associate at Russia Matters.

Photo courtesy of the Missouri State Archives.

Donald Trump’s seeming admiration for Vladimir Putin—whether real or imagined, reciprocal or unilateral—has spawned much speculation. The story dates back at least to 2013, when, ahead of the Miss Universe pageant he had brought to Moscow, Trump wondered if the Russian president would show up and “become my new best friend.” As president, amid mounting talk of possible collusion between his campaign and Russia, Trump has tried to distance himself from Putin—backtracking on earlier claims that they’d spoken “directly” and had a “relationship”—but the two leaders’ much-longer-than-planned July meeting in Germany and the bonhomie that followed suggest that the U.S. president’s positive feelings for Putin have endured.

So how to explain this apparent affection? We submit eight hypotheses, with the caveat that no single explanation will likely suffice and that a combination of the factors outlined below might be at play. And we’re asking readers to weigh in: Which do you think is the most plausible? Or perhaps you have your own theory? If so, select “Other” and explain in the comments.

Hypothesis 1: The Kissinger worldview. Trump’s affinity for Putin may be based on the pragmatic recognition that good relations with Russia are important to advancing a number of vital U.S. interests, not least of them counter-terrorism, non-proliferation and avoiding a nuclear war. Trump shares the viewpoint of Henry Kissinger, who has cast Russia as America’s “Siamese twin” in maintaining a semblance of world order. Here’s some direct evidence:

• Trump has met with Kissinger on several occasions to seek advice; Putin regularly meets with Kissinger for informal discussions with a view to have his points relayed to policymakers in the U.S. (See our collection of Kissinger’s insights and recommendations on Russia.) In his public statements, Trump has suggested that good relations with Putin’s Russia are a matter of realpolitik:
  • “Folks, we have perhaps the second most powerful nuclear country in the world. If you don't have dialogue, you have to be fools,” he said. (CNN, 07.13.17, Reuters, 07.13.17)
  • “Wouldn't it be nice if we got along with the world, and maybe Russia could help us in our quest to get rid of ISIS?” (New York Times, 03.04.16)
  • U.S. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham—who consider Russia a major threat—“should focus their energies on ISIS, illegal immigration and border security instead of always looking to start World War III.” (Politico, 01.29.17)

Hypothesis 2: Admiration for strong leaders. Putin’s management style—that of an unrestricted, sole decision-maker—comes close to that of a powerful business executive, an approach Trump prides himself on bringing to the management of the country. Trump may have a predisposition for strong leaders who can make difficult decisions and execute them, overriding dissent and avoiding the continuous weighing of pros and cons, as exemplified, in Trump’s view, by former President Barack Obama. Here’s some direct evidence:

• Trump has repeatedly praised Putin’s strong leadership, during and after his presidential campaign. (See our collection of Trump’s comments on Putin.) During a Republican presidential debate, Trump said: “I think Putin has been a very strong leader for Russia. I think he has been a lot stronger than our leader, that I can tell you. … I don’t say that in a good way or a bad way. I say it as a fact.” (CNN, 03.15.16)
• Trump said of Putin during a town hall ahead of the election: “The man has very strong control over a country. Now, it's a very different system, and I don't happen to like the system. But certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader.” (Washington Post, 09.07.16)
• Trump continued to draw a distinction between Putin and Obama after he took office. “For eight years Russia 'ran over' President Obama, got stronger and stronger, picked-off Crimea and added missiles. Weak!” Trump tweeted. (Twitter, 03.07.17)

Hypothesis 3: Respect for Russia’s history of resilience and strength. Trump might be admiring not just Putin personally but Russians’ role in history, as fighters against Napoleon, Hitler and Genghis Kahn. Trump respects Putin for his effort to rebuild the military strength of Russia and recapture some of the glory of the Russian Empire.

• Direct evidence: Speaking about the historical reputation of the Russian military, Trump said: “The Russians have great fighters in the cold. They use the cold to their advantage. I mean, they’ve won five wars where the armies that went against them froze to death. … It’s pretty amazing.” (New York Times, 07.19.17)
• Circumstantial evidence: Shortly after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, which drew international condemnation, Trump tweeted: “I believe Putin will continue to re-build the Russian Empire. He has zero respect for Obama or the U.S.!” (Twitter, 03.21.14)
• Big “but”: At the same time, Trump is not known for his appreciation for or mastery of history. He reportedly has a short attention span and little interest in reading. He also stirred up a great deal of criticism from historians with comments he made this spring about the Civil War and Andrew Jackson. (CNN, 05.22.17)

Hypothesis 4: Cultural affinity for Russians. Trump might feel a cultural affinity for Russians in general. If true, this likely has less to do with Pushkin and Prokofiev than with certain common traits of Americans and Russians. Both share a kind of “W­ild West” mentality, having conquered large swaths of territory, and their citizens have a reputation for being resourceful, assertive or even brash, often too much so for the taste of Western Europeans. Here’s some circumstantial evidence:

• In October 2013, Trump told “Late Show” host David Letterman: “I’ve done a lot of business with the Russians. They’re smart and they’re tough and they’re not looking so dumb right now… He’s a tough guy, Putin.” (YouTube, 10.22.13)
• In February 2014, Trump said on “Fox and Friends”: “When I went to Russia with the Miss Universe pageant, [Putin] contacted me and was so nice. I mean, the Russian people were so fantastic to us… I’ll just say this, they are doing—they’re outsmarting us at many turns, as we all understand. I mean, their leaders are, whether you call them smarter or more cunning or whatever, but they’re outsmarting us.” (Archive.org, 02.014.17)
• Anthony Scaramucci, a financier and ardent Trump backer who would briefly serve as the president’s communications director, said that Western sanctions against Russia had backfired “in some ways … because of Russian culture. I think the Russians would eat snow if they had to.” (Newsweek, 07.21.17)

Hypothesis 5: He’s a contrarian. Perhaps Trump, who has shown a willingness to buck conventional wisdom and court controversy for the sake of publicity, isn’t really enamored of Putin. Rather, he has expressed admiration for him precisely because others in the West lambasted him after the Ukrainian crisis erupted. He might have even changed his opinion of Putin, whatever it really was, but clung to his public views feeling some sort of pressure to remain consistent. Here’s some circumstantial evidence:

• Trump has expressed other views related to Russia that are highly unorthodox, especially in Republican circles. In 2013, Trump sided with Putin after he took issue with then-President Obama’s use of the term “American exceptionalism”: “You think of the term as being fine, but all of sudden you say, what if you’re in Germany or Japan or any one of 100 different countries? You’re not going to like that term,” Trump told CNN. “It’s very insulting and Putin really put it to him [Obama] about that.” (BuzzFeed, 08.01.16)
• In response to the claim that Putin is a “killer,” Trump said: “There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent?” (CNN, 02.06.17)
• Ahead of the vote in Congress in late July for a new set of sanctions against Russia, his then-communications director Anthony Scaramucci said that Trump “may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are, or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians.” He cited Trump’s “counterintuitive, counterpunching personality” to explain why the president is considering a veto. (AP, 07.27.17)

Hypothesis 6: Ideological affinity. Trump (or, rather, some of his advisors) might admire the conservative values that Putin has been championing and that the West has been gradually losing. Both leaders have stressed the importance of faith and cultivated ties with religious groups, the Russian Orthodox Church in Putin’s case and conservative Christian groups in Trump’s. Here’s some circumstantial evidence:

• Trump hired as his chief advisor Steve Bannon, an outspoken critic of Western liberalism. Bannon has stated that the greatest mistake the baby boomers made was to reject the traditional “Judeo-Christian” values of their parents. In a 2014 talk at the Vatican, Bannon made it clear that Putin was “playing very strongly to U.S. social conservatives about his message about more traditional values.” As a recent Atlantic essay argued, Putin has realized that “large patches of the West despised feminism and the gay-rights movement,” and he has transformed himself into the “New World Leader of Conservatism,” whose traditionalism offers an alternative to the libertine West that has long shunned him. (The Atlantic, 03.27.17)
• Trump has himself staked out such positions. In a July 2017 speech in Warsaw (which was believed to have been heavily influenced by Bannon), Trump declared: “The people of Poland, the people of America and the people of Europe still cry out ‘We want God.’” (New York Times, 07.11.17, The White House, 07.06.17)
• While Trump signaled support for LGBT rights during his campaign, he recently announced, in a stark reversal from a policy instituted by former President Obama, that trans-gender people would be banned from the military. The move was one of several that antagonized gay-rights groups. (CNN, 06.13.16, New York Times, 07.27.17)

Hypothesis 7: Financial gain. Trump might view a good relationship with Putin as a way to further expand his business empire. In this way, Trump’s approach to Putin represents a continuation of efforts dating back to the late 1980s to build relationships with powerful Russian government and business leaders. Here’s some circumstantial evidence:

• Trump wrote in his 1987 book “Art of the Deal” that he was interested in partnering with the Soviet government to build a luxury hotel in Moscow, and he planned to give then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev a tour of Trump Tower in 1988. (The Washington Post, 12.03.88)
• The Trump family and its businesses have reportedly long pursued Russian investors and deals in Russia and former Soviet republics. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. told a real estate conference that he had been averaging a trip to Russia about every three months for the past year and a half, but suggested that the Trump Organization, the family business, didn’t have the adequate connections to safeguard investments: “It is definitely not an issue of being able to find a deal—but an issue of ‘Will I ever see my money back out of that deal or can I actually trust the person I am doing the deal with?’ As much as we want to take our business over there, Russia is just a different world. … [I]t is a question of who knows who, whose brother is paying off who, etc.” He added: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of our assets. … We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” (New Republic, 07.13.17, New York Magazine, 07.11.17, McClatchy, 06.28.17, USA Today, 02.15.17, The Daily Beast, 01.11.17)
• Unlike past presidents, Trump has refused to place his business holdings and investments into a blind trust; he has instead placed them in a “revocable trust,” controlled by his adult sons, and the president was able, as of April, “to withdraw profits and underlying assets from his trust at any time.” (CNBC, 06.12.17, BBC, 04.18.17, ProPublica, 04.04.17, Politico, 01.11.17)

Hypothesis 8: Russia has compromising materials on him. Trump may feel compelled to stay on Putin’s good side because the Russians might have kompromat—compromising materials—on him. The existence of kompromat was a central claim in the so-called Steele dossier, compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele as part of opposition research against Trump during the 2016 campaign. The document alleges that the Kremlin had been “cultivating, supporting and assisting” Trump for at least five years and amassed a file on him that includes videos of him engaged in lurid sexual activities. Here’s some speculative, uncorroborated evidence:

• The Steele report alleges that there was an “extensive conspiracy” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin that was “sanctioned at the highest levels.” If there were contacts between the campaign and Russian officials that have not been revealed, this may give the Kremlin some leverage over Trump. All sources in the Steele report are anonymous, and only a few of its claims have been independently confirmed since it surfaced publicly in early 2017. However, the FBI is investigating allegations of collusion under the oversight of an independent special counsel. The supposedly compromising materials against Hillary Clinton that were promised to Donald Trump Jr. ahead of his controversial June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer allegedly came from Russia’s prosecutor general, who has been described as a master of kompromat. (Steele report, Jan. 2017, New York Times, 07.17.17)
• Citing three sources, the Steele report describes a specific sexual encounter involving Trump and multiple women in a suite at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in 2013. But like all sources in the report, these are anonymous, and there’s been no independent confirmation of the incident or other sexual allegations. Moreover, the negligible damage to Trump’s presidential aspirations done by the “Access Hollywood” scandal casts some doubt on the idea that such kompromat would give the Kremlin sway over him. (Steele report, Jan. 2017)
• Media reports have said that Trump owes much of his wealth to “a flow of highly suspicious money from Russia,” including millions in illicitly gained funds. As the New Republic recently reported, “To date, no one has documented that Trump was even aware of any suspicious entanglements in his far-flung businesses, let alone that he was directly compromised by the Russian mafia or the corrupt oligarchs who are closely allied with the Kremlin. So far, when it comes to Trump’s ties to Russia, there is no smoking gun.” This, of course, raises the question: Might the Russian government have one?