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President Trump had his first officially scheduled telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on …
Trump and Putin have first official phone conversation amid European anxiety about future relations
As his top aides looked on, Trump sat in the Oval Office and spoke with Putin on his desk phone, at one point peering out of the windows at the White House journalists watching from across the Rose Garden. Trump took the call at precisely noon, the midpoint of a day when his call list also includes German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
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American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia hacked U.S. political organizations last year in an effort to interfere with the presidential election and help Trump.
Trump said Friday that having Russia as an ally "would be an asset." He says he wants to form an alliance with Russia to fight Islamic State militants in Syria. But Russia's track record has been not to target Islamic State in Syria but to go after rebel groups fighting to topple Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is opposed by the U.S.
Trump has had business dealings in Russia, according to members of his family, and has spoken glowingly of his visit there for a beauty pageant he organized.
Trump's pick for secretary of State, America's top diplomat, has further cemented the concerns. Rex Tillerson, the former chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil, has acknowledged a close relationship with Putin, honed through years of multibillion-dollar deals for oil exploration and drilling in Russia.
Both Trump and Tillerson have been less than enthusiastic about economic sanctions imposed on Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Trump even suggested the U.S. could lift the sanctions if Russia agreed to compromise on nuclear arms, an unrelated matter.
Ahead of Saturday's call, Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said that sanctions might be discussed. Russian officials, however, sought to downplay expectations.
"I do think they are going into this with a general negotiating tactic: Offer Russia a chance to back off and not be antagonistic," said James Jay Carafano, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, who briefed Trump on foreign affairs during the transition. "That is different from placating [Putin] and giving him whatever he wants."
Vice President Mike Pence was present in the Oval Office for the call with Putin, though he did not sit in on the morning call with Merkel, White House officials told pool reporters.
The Kremlin had no immediate comment on the conversation other than to note that Pence's participation was "not planned."
Alexei Pushkov, a Russian senator and former chairman of the parliamentary foreign relations committee, tweeted Saturday: "The Trump - Putin conversation will give a new beginning to the fight against IS, a solution of the crises in Syria, Ukraine. [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel only has old solutions.”
Special correspondent Mansur Mirovalev in Moscow contributed to this report.
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