Like Merkel, how far will Trump go to bail out Putin from his economic travails?

Like a bolt out of the blue, Trump announced yesterday that a summit meeting between himself and Putin is being set up.

Now a summit meeting is,

" ... an international meeting of heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security, and a prearranged agenda." (Wikipedia)

As Brett Forrest and Peter Nicholas report,

"Any meeting between the two presidents would be expected to include discussions on Syria, Ukraine and nuclear-arms control. The summit’s purpose would be to resolve longstanding differences, people familiar with the matter said.
....
[Trump] added: “There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy.” He went on to suggest that a more collaborative relationship with Russia could curb the arms race." (Wall Street Journal : June 1, 2018) (my emphasis)

Now recall that in my last blog entry I wrote that,

"And whilst Putin's anger is now focusing itself on mounting a fully-fledged cyber attack against Ukraine, nonetheless the Putinversteher Angela Merkel concluded her meeting in Sochi with Putin (18 May, 2018), emphasizing that,

"We have strategic interests to maintain good relations with Russia ..."

To which Putin responded,

"Germany is one of our key trade partners ... We just started to buy German goods in higher volumes, which supports jobs in Germany" (blog entry: 24/5/2018)

Both Trump and Merkel seem, ironically, to be "concerned" in helping Putin out of the economic morass into which he has plunged the Russian economy.

And whilst Trump states that, "Russia needs us to help with their economy",Nikki Hayley (right), the US representative at the UN, stated in no uncertain terms that,

"We condemn, in the strongest terms, Russia's involvement in eastern Ukraine and its purported annexation of Crimea," said Haley, promising US sanctions will remain in place until Russia withdraws from the long-simmering conflict, which she called "a textbook example of the direct violation of the sovereignty of one (UN) member state by another member state." (Laura Koran : CNN : May 29, 2018) (my emphasis)

 As Trump is gearing up for a summit with Putin, Dough Palmer (left) reports that,

"The Trump administration will impose new duties on steel and aluminum imports from three key trading partners — the European Union, Canada and Mexico — after failing to reach deals with them to address national security concerns related to the imports, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday." (Politico : 31 May, 2018) (my emphasis)

Trump, having set in motion this trade war with the EU, among others, we have to now ask ourselves the following question,

"Like Merkel, how far will Trump go to bail out Putin from his economic travails?" 

Even more pertinent,

"How far will Merkel's and Trump's bailout of Putin from his economic travails undermine the EU-US sanctions against Putin because of his illegal annexation of Ukrainian Crimea, and his ongoing war with Ukraine?"

(to be continued)