U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will head to Alaska on Friday for their sixth face-to-face meeting. The previous five happened during Trump’s first term in office. None delivered concrete results for Trump.
Those earlier interactions, in which Trump often spoke favorably of Putin to a degree that made even some Republicans uncomfortable, are coloring expectations for Friday’s summit over ending Russia’s war with Ukraine. In recent days, Trump’s comments on the upcoming head-to-head have veered from tamping down expectations to warning Russia would face “severe consequences” should Putin refuse to make a ceasefire deal.
Trump’s relationship with Russia cast a shadow over his first term, and each of his interactions with Putin. Trump had campaigned in 2016 on improving relations with Russia and repeatedly praised Putin as a strong leader. At a July 2016 press conference in Florida, Trump looked directly at the camera and encouraged Russia to “find” his opponent Hillary Clinton’s emails. Russian hackers then stole documents from Democratic Party email accounts and released them online before Election Day. Trump’s first term was dogged by investigations into what actions Russia took to help his campaign.
When Putin meets with world leaders like Trump, he draws on his earlier experience as a KGB officer, says John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “He’s a former KGB guy, he likes to study his interlocutor,” says Hardie, who adds that Putin is likely to give Trump long historical lectures as he lays out his argument that Ukraine should be firmly in Russia’s sphere of influence.
Trump, who grew up in the real estate business, tends to think of geopolitical deals in terms of land swaps. But drawing new lines in Ukrainian territory is unlikely to satisfy Putin, who wants to control the entire country, says John Herbst, former ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006. “Putin’s goal is not to acquire some territory in Ukraine. It’s to have effective political control of the country, which requires a lot more conquests,” Herbst says. “He wants to continue the war, and that’s on his path to recreating in some fashion the Russian Empire.”
Read more: The Secret White House Backchannel That Paved the Way For Trump’s Summit With Putin
Trump vowed during the campaign to quickly secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. The war has swamped Russia’s effort to work with the U.S. on broader issues. Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Putin’s refusal to dial back attacks on civilian targets. Trump’s had at least six phone calls with Putin since he took office in January. After most of those calls, Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine have spiked, according to an analysis by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in mid-July, Trump described his impatience with Putin telling him one thing and then doing another. “I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ And she said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.’”
All of that increases pressure on Trump to avoid leaving yet another summit with Putin with little to show for it. Here’s a look at their previous meetings:
Hamburg—July 7, 2017
The first time Trump and Putin met in person was at the Group of 20 economic summit in Hamburg, Germany, in July 2017.
“We look forward to a lot of very positive things happening for Russia, and for the United States and for everybody concerned. And it’s an honor to be with you,” Trump said after exchanging greetings with Putin. Putin said he was “delighted” to meet Trump and that the two men “need personal meetings” if Trump wants “to resolve most international policy issues.” At one point, Putin pointed to the reporters watching their initial greetings, and asked Trump if they were the ones who had “insulted” him. Trump nodded and laughed.
Their meeting was also attended by Trump’s then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Putin’s minister of foreign affairs Sergey Lavrov and two interpreters. Tillerson later told reporters that Trump and Putin were able to look beyond the controversy over Russia’s attempts to sway the 2016 U.S. campaign and “find a way to go forward.” In an unusual move, Trump took possession of his translator’s notes from the meeting, The Washington Post later reported.
Putin and Trump spoke again that same evening in Hamburg during a dinner with other world leaders and their spouses. During that dinner, Putin was seated next to First Lady Melania Trump.
Da Nang, Vietnam—Nov. 11, 2017
Video clips from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, show Putin and Trump talking on the sidelines of the summit. But the two leaders didn’t have a formal meeting scheduled. Trump later told reporters that he and Putin discussed Russian actions in the 2016 election, and Putin denied meddling. “Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it,” Trump said. “I think he is very insulted by it, which is not a good thing for our country.”
Helsinki—July 16, 2018
Trump and Putin met for their first one-on-one summit in Finland. The two men initially met with other American officials in the room and then adjourned to a private, two-hour-long meeting with only their interpreters.
Both leaders were visitors in Finland, but when they came out for a joint press conference with reporters, Putin ran the proceedings like he was the host. Putin spoke first and called on the first reporter to ask a question. Trump declined to criticize Putin during the 46-minute press conference. He didn’t criticize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and he didn’t mention the Kremlin’s alleged hand in the use of a nerve agent on British soil four months earlier, and he issued no warning or critique of Russia’s attempts to interfere with the 2016 elections.
In perhaps the most remarkable exchange from the summit, Trump broke with the assessments of his own intelligence agencies, as well as House and Senate committees and members of his own Cabinet, by questioning whether Russia even played a role in the hacks of Democratic party emails. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people,” Trump said, “but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
Buenos Aires—Nov. 30, 2018
Before Trump traveled to Argentina to attend the G-20 meetings in Buenos Aires, he canceled a planned meeting with Putin in the wake of Russia seizing Ukrainian naval vessels in the Sea of Azov. The White House later said the two leaders talked during an “informal” conversation over dinner with other leaders. It was their last known face-to-face meeting.
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