George W. Bush famously looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and “found him very straightforward and trustworthy.” That’s the “business pragmatism” – and naïveté – Russia’s ruler undoubtedly hopes for when he meets President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg this week. John McCain says when he looks into Putin’s eyes he sees “a K, a G, and a B.” Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor and a former East German, sees Stasi. Though he may not like to, President Trump ought to take note: Putin is no businessman. He is a manipulator, through and through.
OP-ED
Jeffrey Gedmin: Reading Putin in Hamburg
Picture taken on June 22, 2009 shows hundreds of files in the archives of the former East German secret police, known as the Stasi in Berlin.
