Normally, when presidents call world leaders, a recording is made publicly available. But Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin was different.
On Saturday, President Trump and Russian President Putin had an hour-long call. However, a readout of the call is currently unavailable, as Trump purposefully turned off the recording equipment on the White House line. The only record of the call is a 10-paragraph summary from the Kremlin, and a one-paragraph boilerplate statement from the Trump White House.
Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on taking office and wished him every success in his work.
During the conversation, both sides expressed their readiness to make active joint efforts to stabilise and develop Russia-US cooperation on a constructive, equitable and mutually beneficial basis.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump had a detailed discussion of pressing international issues, including the fight against terrorism, the situation in the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, strategic stability and non-proliferation, the situation with Iran’s nuclear programme, and the Korean Peninsula issue. The discussion also touched upon the main aspects of the Ukrainian crisis. The sides agreed to build up partner cooperation in these and other areas.
Turkish journalist Ilhan Tanir tweeted from a panel discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Center, quoting American Foreign Policy Council Vice President Ilan Berman, who confirmed that no readout of the call between Trump and Putin exists specifically because recording equipment was disabled for the call.
The fact that the White House turned off recording for Trump’s call with Putin is very curious, given that Russia is a global superpower, and having a recording of the call between the President of the United States and the leader of Russia would be of great geopolitical importance for U.S. allies, along with being of significant interest to the American public.
The impression the lack of transparency gives certainly won’t assuage concerns voiced by Democrats that Russia had an interest in electing Donald Trump as president. An investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee probing Trump’s ties to Russia is currently underway.
Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact him via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com, or follow him on Facebook.
