Trump and Putin (1/2) | DW Documentary

-Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream. November 9, 2016. And Donald Trump had just been elected the new president of the United States. Hillary Clinton, the favorite, had lost. -She congratulated us, it's about us, about our victory. The results of the elections were also celebrated in Moscow. -We are glad that the best candidate won. Let Grandma Hillary rest. -We were bewildered: in the State Duma, nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky held a special reception to celebrate Trump's victory. -There were reports of people popping champagne corks at the time. I don't know anyone personally, but I found out.

Well, the love of greatness is part of the Russian national character. Vladimir Putin was one of the first to congratulate the surprise winner Donald Trump. -Russia wants to completely restore its relationship with the United States. -The fact that Trump focused on the slogan “Make America Great Again”, that he wanted to promote his own country instead of pushing globalization, was good news for us Russians. -President Putin and President Trump shook hands in a new friendship. But the first two years of Trump's presidency were overshadowed by the so-called Russian Affair. The charge was conspiracy against the United States.

Did the two men collude illegally? -I never worked for Russia and you know that answer better than anyone, I never worked for Russia. There were signs of male bonding every time the two presidents met. But could a true partnership ever really develop? Could these men really become friends or were their states destined to remain enemies? Let's go back to 2016. In the run-up to the US presidential election, Russian state media endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump, a man known for his affinity towards Russia. -We are going to have a great relationship with Putin and Russia. Political tensions between Russia and the United States had been increasing, even leading to talk of a new cold war. -The policies of the American Democrats and President Obama had brought the Russian-American relationship to a dead end.

The new Democratic presidential candidate was Putin's archenemy, Hillary Clinton. -She even compared him to Hitler. Quite brazenly, she said he was exactly like Hitler. So, it was obvious that relations would be difficult if she became president. Moscow put all its hopes in Donald Trump to revive the relationship between the two nations. -Trump expressed himself quite differently. He said that he would find a common language with Putin, that it was possible to work together with Putin and that is exactly what he planned to do. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin: two men with two common enemies: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Despite having different reasons, Trump and Putin shared the feeling of being slighted by the outgoing US president and the US establishment. -I think that from Putin's perspective, Donald Trump had better prospects to lead the United States than Hillary Clinton. Putin knew Obama's position and had tried to surpass him several times in world politics, without success. Putin's distrust of the United States, its president, and its allies was deeply rooted. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin had experienced what Western betrayal really meant: NATO's expansion into former communist Eastern Europe. -First Poland joined, then it was the Czech Republic and Hungary, then it went on and on and on.

Now the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) are also members of NATO. They share borders with Russia. On what basis should Putin or anyone else trust a word the West says? I don't know. Even under President Obama, relations did not improve. Putin was baffled by Obama's advocacy of regime change in the Arab world. -He always had the feeling that things were going in the wrong direction. That nothing was going as it should. The key change was the Arab Spring. -The situation in Libya was dramatic, and then Gaddafi, the head of state, was assassinated live in front of the cameras.

That scene must have affected Putin greatly. But on the other hand, Trump's dislike of Obama was personal, not political. 2011 was a test for Trump. He launched his own unofficial election campaign, aiming to run as a Republican candidate in the 2012 presidential election, challenging Obama. -Don't you like Donald Trump? and the last man in the world he wants to compete against is Donald Trump. Trump revived an old rumor about Obama, claiming that his true birthplace was Kenya and that the president was therefore ineligible for office. -Trump was not, I think, on anyone's radar other than as a kind of joke, right, in this back and forth;

I mean, again, as with so many things about Trump, at first you don't take him seriously because he seems so flamboyant and strange. Obama finally released his birth certificate. In April 2011, at the traditional correspondents' dinner in Washington, the president responded. -No one is happier, no one is more proud to put an end to this birth certificate issue than The Donald. And that's because you can finally get back to focusing on the questions that matter, like, for example, did we fake the moon landing? A slap that Donald Trump would not quickly forget. His masterpiece backfired: two weeks later he withdrew his presidential bid.

But Trump declared that he would still win in the next election. Too arrogant to be true? Trump sought revenge on Obama. And he wasn't the only one. In Russia, Putin was also waiting for the moment to take revenge on his American counterpart. But first he had to win an election. However, in the run-up to the March 2012 elections, Moscow became the epicenter of an unprecedented wave of anti-government demonstrations. -The protests began after the parliamentary elections in early December 2011, which were grossly rigged. What happened next was what happens elsewhere when citizens realize their votes are not being heard.

They go out to the street. Putin blamed Hillary Clinton for signaling the protests. -At that time she was Secretary of State. The US State Department provided funding for Russian NGOs to observe the elections. For Putin, this was direct interference in his regime: Hillary Clinton wanted to overthrow him and organize a revolution in Russia. Putin decided to crush the opposition and accused the United States of threatening Russia and its traditional values. -In 2012, I warned my friends in the liberal camp to prepare for the inevitable. They would have to take sides: us, Russia or the West. -I thank everyone who has said yes to a strong Russia!

I asked you: will we win? Yeah! Putin's tactics paid off. He was the clear winner of the presidential election, with 64 percent of the vote. -Putin has shown that his policy is oriented towards traditional values: family, loyalty to the people and service to the Fatherland. These values ​​have always been typical of the Russian service class, as it used to be called. In November 2012, President Obama was also re-elected. He began his second term. -We have gone backwards and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come. Russia, however, was not very high on Obama's agenda. -There is no great economic relationship, there was no great need at this time to focus on nuclear weapons or non-proliferation treaties.

They weren't showing up at the time, so for Obama, he focused entirely on other issues. about the Middle East, about terrorism, about internal affairs. Russia was really an afterthought. But one American citizen was vying for Putin's attention: Donald Trump. Already in 2013 he recognized that Russia was also a land of unlimited opportunities. As owner of the rights to Miss Universe, Trump had voted in favor of holding the beauty pageant in Moscow. He launched a charm offensive on Twitter: could Putin be his new best friend? He was sure that Putin would attend the contest. In November 2013, Trump arrives in Moscow flanked by beauty queens. -Moscow is a city that shines very well and Trump, as we know, is a guy who really likes sparkles: the brighter the gold shines, the more exciting he finds it. -It is an incredible place and Moscow and all of Russia are going crazy, so we are very happy, the Miss Universe pageant is breaking records.

Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov hosted the event. Trump had met with him just five months earlier in Las Vegas. Aras Agalarov approached Michael Idov, editor-in-chief of GQ Russia magazine at the time, to write a cover story. He said no. -My commitment was that we will not write anything about this little horror, but I will go and hang out at the opening party of the pageant and they will photograph me for, you know, the society pages. . Despite Agalarov's best efforts to persuade Putin to attend the beauty pageant, the Russian president did not appear. Trump's trip to Russia later fueled accusations that Moscow had recruited him as an agent, engineered by host Agalarov, a man with close contacts in the Kremlin. -Welcome to Moscow! -If I had known that this idiotic event would somehow become some kind of crux, the focal point of the biggest conspiracy theory of the 21st century, I probably would have paid more attention or tried to hang out with Trump and the Agalarovs.

But I honestly doubt that was when the plot was hatched. During his stay in Moscow, Trump continued his offensive: against Obama, for Russia. -All over the world people laugh at us, they are scamming us, that is, us? If you look at what's happening in Russia, in Moscow, you look at how it's booming and how well it's doing and how the Olympics are being held. As you know, we tried to get the Olympics and we came in fourth place. Now imagine that. out, fourth place. However, Putin ignored his advances. -To the average Russian, Trump was a money magnate, a man with a trophy wife, who built towers all over the world.

No more than that. He was a businessman, one among many. I don't think Putin perceived it differently at this time. But giving up was not an option for Donald Trump. He was determined to find a way to get Putin's attention. But the Russian president had bigger plans. He wanted his country back on the world stage. Fast. And he could see a way to do it. In early 2014, Ukraine's Crimean peninsula became the center of the most serious East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War. On February 22, Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's president loyal to Moscow, was removed from office.

Putin realized that he had to act. -As he could not help President Yanukovych stay in power, Ukraine had to be punished. He wanted to show that a popular revolution could only worsen the situation of a country. It was also a clear warning to his own country. Putin, whose empire borders Ukraine, wants to prevent Ukraine from moving closer to Europe. -If this State were to join the West and become a member of the EU and NATO, it would first of all mean that NATO troops would be stationed along this long border. Furthermore, it was obvious that if Crimea belonged to Ukraine, it would no longer be Russia's most important naval base.

Instead, we could have the US Sixth Fleet, for example, arriving in Sevastopol. Putin called a midnight meeting and decided that Crimea should belong to Russia again. -You know, people, the Sochi Olympics were still going on or had just ended. The world was distracted. And so Russia clearly had plans to take back Crimea. They didn't invent them. It wasn't an impulsive move, so to speak. Moscow acted quickly. Just three weeks after the overthrow of the Ukrainian president, Crimea declared its independence. -The annexation of the strategic Black Sea peninsula quickly followed a hastily called referendum on Sunday in which its residents overwhelmingly backed breaking with Ukraine and joining Russia. -I would like to congratulate all citizens of Russia, Crimea and Sevastopol on this important event. -Sometimes, for Americans, I try to explain to them that it would be as if, due to an accident in history, the United States lost part of South Florida, but not just South Florida: Orlando, Disney, and if, by chance, the opportunity for a President to recover it, what would people say?

That it was a violation of international law or is Disney ours? And that is what is heard in Russia, the cry goes up: Krim Nos, Crimea is ours. The United States and the European Union reacted by imposing economic sanctions on Russia. -Sanctions have come as the new form of conflict between countries, because they are perceived as economic. It's something that's politically satisfying. There is a whole class of new sanctions experts offering their services to the sovereign, and Congress and the President are all very interested in having these services. At the Nuclear Security Summit held in The Hague in March 2014, Barack Obama again attacked the Russian president. -Russia isa regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not through strength, but through weakness.

Obama's mockery only served to encourage Putin to move further into Ukraine. Tensions rose in April when fighting broke out between pro-Russian and pro-government forces in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. -Putin has said it so many times: Russia and Ukraine are one nation. They belong together. One people, one empire, one leader. -Russian policy towards Ukraine is considered fundamental to Russian national identity. When you listen to Russians, to officials, to the media, to ordinary people talking all the time about my Ukrainian grandmother, about my summers in Ukraine, Ukraine is my left arm, my right arm, whatever, the right.

It is a deep feeling of closeness to Ukraine. As if he also understood what Ukraine meant to Russia, did Donald Trump intervene? -Putin, Russia says, I mean, these are really interesting things and now you have people in Ukraine? Who knows, configured or not? but not everything can be fixed, but Russia, I mean, what it has done for Russia is really amazing. Trump's praise for Putin fell on deaf ears. -Before Trump ran for president, no one saw him as particularly influential, much less as someone to watch politically. as a penaltyFor the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, the United States and Europe imposed new sanctions on the Russian financial, energy and defense sectors in September 2014.

Putin retaliated. For him, the United States was the real troublemaker. -You would think that the special position and leadership of the United States was truly a blessing to all of us. Well, let me tell you, this was not the case. Instead of resolving conflicts, it led to their escalation and the spread of chaos. Instead of democracy, support was growing for dubious groups, from neo-fascists to radical Islamists. Moscow's provocation was nothing new for the West. -After the annexation of Crimea and the events in eastern Ukraine, Russia found itself in total diplomatic isolation. Putin was virtually ignored at the G20 meeting in Australia.

He left it early. Putin needed a new front to demonstrate Russian strength. He found it in Syria. -Russia always had strong relations with the Syrian government, it sold weapons to the Syrian government for many years, often on credit and after a while that credit would magically be forgiven. The civil war in Syria lasted five years. In its fight against insurgents, President Bashar al-Assad's army had razed entire cities. Amid the chaos, the so-called Islamic State had taken control of large swaths of eastern Syria. Putin did not want to see another Arab dictator overthrown. He decided to intervene. -With Bashar al-Assad, it was not about supporting him personally: the problem was keeping the Syrian State functioning.

What has American and European intervention in the internal affairs of other states ever achieved, with this excuse of teaching them about democracy and its way of life? Just chaos and collapse. This applies to Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. And now, in Syria, Russia was saying: “Stop! Enough is enough." On September 30, 2015, Russia launched its airstrikes. Officially, they targeted Islamic terrorist militias. Putin's American champion gave him his full support. On American television, Trump endorsed Putin's intervention in Syria and said no one should stand in Russia's way against the Islamic State. However, Trump was alone with his message of support.

The United States and its allies demanded that Russian airstrikes stop. Their missiles were also hitting innocent people -We are Russians. We wage war. And when we wage war, we want to win. And we win. Even if only 15 or 20% of our bombs reach their target, they still do. Russian military support dramatically changed the situation in Syria, for Assad. The international community could no longer ignore Putin. He needed a breakthrough, a chance to return to the world stage. He wanted to regain his place at the table with the other players. Russian intervention in Syria was his ticket. -They went in there, started the bombing campaign and really forced the United States to talk to them.

And since then, the Russian and American militaries have engaged in daily conflict resolution talks. At the same time, Donald Trump was once again looking at the US presidency. Already in June 2015 he launched his election campaign. -I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again. -At this time, Trump was already leading the race for the Republican nomination. People were starting to take him seriously. Then, of course, they also started following his comments about Russia. Trump's attempts to curry favor with the Russian president finally paid off. In December 2015, Putin mentioned Donald Trump in public for the first time. -He is a very striking man and undoubtedly very talented.

He appears to be the big favorite in the presidential race. Trump happily accepted the praise. -He came out of nowhere two days ago-and he said Trump is brilliant. He's fine. He is the leader. He is the leader of the parties.” And he said nice things, I didn't know, I never met him, so I didn't know. He says nice things and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, isn't what Putin said terrible? That's not terrible, that's good, because it's a good thing, not a bad thing. He can't stand Obama, Obama can't stand him. They are always fighting.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get along with people? Know? -I guess what started in late 2015 was this kind of mutual flirtation, if not a love story, where Trump praised Putin and Putin now saw the possibility that Trump could play in this election and praised Trump like someone who could be presidential. -There is something that I find important and that I can only approve. I don't see anything wrong with it, on the contrary. Trump said he would be willing to restore Russian-American relations. What's wrong with that? We all want that, don't you? -From the Russian perspective it was clear who to support in the elections.

Putin spoke favorably but also quite cautiously about Trump. He said he was good, but he didn't say he thought Trump was great or anything like that. He was much more reserved. On July 22, 2015, Trump became the official Republican presidential candidate. -I ask for his support tonight so I can be his champion in the White House – and I will be his champion. Nobody knows the system better than me, that's why only I can fix it. Trump presented himself as Putin's Western kindred spirit. -Due to his character and his training, he not only liked Putin as a politician, but also as a person with a personality similar to his, with strength, confidence, coherence and enormous resilience.

Like Trump himself. A few days later, Trump appeared before the press. The question arose again: would he recognize Crimea as Russian territory when he was president? Or lift the sanctions? -Will we be looking at that, will we be looking? His comments contradicted both U.S. and NATO government policy: both wanted to maintain sanctions until Russia returned Crimea to Ukraine. But Trump saw NATO primarily as a competitor to the US - Donald Trump begins to cast enormous skepticism and doubt on the NATO alliance, his point being that NATO, like everything it has done, should be transactional - how much is the United States paying? versus how much other allies contribute should be the determining factor, rather than the idea of ​​collective security that has been the basis of the alliance since its founding. -Trump is an isolationist, he says: NATO is absorbing American resources.

He believes this. However, he understands nothing about foreign policy, nor does he wish to. -And I am sure that, from Vladimir Putin's point of view, this is music to his ears. In July 2016, Hillary Clinton made American history as the first major party presidential candidate. -And that is why, my friends, I accept her nomination with humility, determination and boundless confidence in the promise of the United States. That same month she accused Russia of interfering in the presidential election. Russian hackers are alleged to have stolen and published emails from the Democratic National Committee. His goal was to sow seeds of discord in his party for the benefit of Donald Trump. -In 2016, Putin set out to create chaos in the United States, mainly so he could tell Russians at home: “Look at this, this democracy is a complete disaster.” Trump was very enthusiastic.

He encouraged hackers to find even more emails. -If Russia or China or any other country has those emails, I want to be honest with you, I would love to see them? Russia, if you're listening, I hope you can find the 30,000 emails. missing! Putin denied all allegations, saying Russia had not interfered in the US election and that the scandal surrounding the alleged stolen emails was false. -The most important thing was the content, which the public now knows. That's the only thing that matters, not who stole it. -I always tell Americans: Do you really realize that we totally control the United States?

Our hackers control everything! But of course, that's complete nonsense. From my point of view, the most stupid thing is that they use this excuse to oppose Trump's internal policies. On November 9, 2016, something happened that very few had believed possible: Hillary Clinton lost the presidential election. -This is not the result we wanted or worked so hard for, and I regret that we did not win this election because of the values ​​and vision we share for our country. A historic election night was over. The winner was Donald Trump. -I promise all the citizens of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me?

There was also applause from Moscow. -So, this is not just the victory of the Americans, who defended their democracy against the liberal globalist elite. No, this is the victory that the American people brought to the entire world. -The reality is that a large number of Russians felt vindicated. They felt that something good had happened. Justice will now be served and a new American president will respect Russia's grievances. -We are the champions of the world? -At the end of the day, Trump defends protectionism in the economy and greater American sovereignty. For example, he doesn't want immigrants in the country.

His way of thinking was much closer to Putin's. So, has outgoing President Barack Obama already gone down in history? Not quite. He still had one card left to play. In December, his government expelled 35 Russian citizens in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the election. But there was no reaction from Putin… yet. -We only react when we can benefit. Obama's presidency was more or less over. Why should we have wasted our political capital? Even in 2014 or 2015 he couldn't do much anymore. -Putin noted that Moscow was awaiting the arrival of President Trump to the White House and would solve the problems with him. -Putin did not want to start the relationship with President Trump on this sour note and instead sent Trump this positive message.

Trump responded and said Vladimir Putin was very smart not to retaliate. Putin even defended the newly elected president, even giving a surprising response to questions about rumors that Russia had compromising material on Trump, including images with prostitutes during his visit to Moscow in 2013. -I have a hard time imagining that he went into a hotel to meet Girls with a low sense of social responsibility. Although they are, of course, the best in the world. People who fake photographs of the type now circulating, of the president-elect of the United States, to use in a political battle, are worse than prostitutes.

They have absolutely no moral standards! On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States of America. -I, Donald John Trump, do I solemnly swear? (which I will faithfully execute)? that I will faithfully execute, (the office of President of the United States), the office of President of the United States. (So ​​help me God), so help me God. (Congratulations, Mr. President?) Would the relationship with Moscow be restarted now? -Putin hoped to create a type of relationship with the United States different from the previous one. Which meant gradually rebuilding the world to fit its own rules and turning Russia into a superpower again.

He and Trump would come to an agreement on how the rest of the world would live. But Moscow's hopes of a new beginning with Washington were soon dashed. First, by Nikki Haley, Trump's new ambassador to the United Nations. Haley's first appearance in February 2017 marked a tougher stance. -I consider it regrettable that the occasion of my first appearance here is one in which I must condemn Russia's aggressive actions. ? The dire situation in eastern Ukraine demands a clear and firm condemnation of Russian actions. Contrary to all of Trump's previous comments, Ambassador Haley confirmed that US sanctions would remain in place untilRussia will withdraw from Crimea.

The US government's anti-Russian tactics continued. In March, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that his agency would conduct an official investigation into alleged Russian government interference in the 2016 U.S. election campaign. —And that includes investigating the nature of any links between people associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. In April, UN Ambassador Haley once again condemned Russia's complicity with the Syrian Assad regime, this time citing a poison gas attack. -Yesterday morning we woke up to images, of children foaming at the mouth, suffering convulsions, being carried in the arms of desperate parents.

The truth is that Assad, Russia and Iran have no interest in peace. When the United Nations systematically fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of States when we are forced to take our own measures. Three days later, US missiles hit the Syrian military airport where the poison gas attack allegedly took place.