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.The Staatssicherheitsdienst, the intelligence service of communist East Germany …read more
Source: The American Interest
