While some Western journalists are wondering whether the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders will turn into a macho-man competition, others are dead serious in predicting that the talks "could shape the world" and that "the fate of the Earth" might be at stake.
Name-calling and comedy video sketches, pessimism and fear mongering. That’s how the West’s mainstream media has responded to news of the upcoming meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg.
The Handshakes
While you might expect funny video compilations of Donald Trump’s "peculiar handshakes” on websites like the Huffington Post, this time the genre is being explored by Newsweek. The mainstream publication talks about Putin’s "pure machismo” meeting Trump’s habit of making "his every handshake with a world leader into a test of both symbolic and physical strength”.
Newsweek quotes former Barack Obama administration official Derek Chollet, who told CNN that he expects "an Olympian level of macho posturing between the two leaders.”
It's hard to tell whether the meeting will be about "peculiar handshake” moments or not, but CNN doubts that the US leader will maintain the upper hand:
"Trump comes into the meeting at a disadvantage,” the network’s White House reporter Steven Collinson said. "He is weakened at home, barreling from one self-inflicted political firestorm to another, leaving limited room for maneuver on foreign policy.”
Collinson added that "the talks have a crucial strategic purpose, since they take place with relations between Russia and the United States in their most dangerous state since the Cold War.”
The Nukes
Huffington Post, in turn, ran a rather serious piece by Norman Solomon, the author of a dozen books and an anti-war activist. According to Solomon, the two leaders hold the whole world in their hands ― along with the nuclear buttons ― and life on the planet depends on the dynamics between them:
"The imminent meeting between Trump and Putin will affect the chances that the young people we love ― and so many others around the world ― will have a future. And whether later generations will even exist."
The Agenda
Bloomberg TV editor Michael McKee said that according to Trump’s aides, the US president is going into the meeting with no particular plan, so he could "stand up to a guy who has a reputation as a very tough negotiator, very strong leader.”
"So, for Trump it’s keeping his head above water, for Putin it’s the publicity he will get – the PR at home, from standing up to the US president, and making his points."
Bloomberg’s recent article, "Trump-Putin Talks Raise Fears Ex-Spymaster to Get Upper Hand," raised concerns over Trump’s expertise in global affairs in comparison with the Russian leader, who is "experienced in the long game of strategy and statecraft."
Nearly every mainstream media outlet is speculating wildly about the meeting’s agenda. Reporters say that among possible topics for discussion is the situation in the Middle East, the Syrian crisis, Ukraine and the anti-Russian sanctions, as well as Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Nevertheless, there is almost no mention of what is being perceived as important by the Russian side. The Western media prefers to omit one such topic: the seizure of Russian diplomatic property in the United States ― a "bitter farewell” from the Obama administration and a gesture that, contrary to Moscow’s hopes, hasn’t been undone by Donald Trump and his officials.
Putin and Trump have spoken on the phone three times in 2017. Their first face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany is scheduled for July 7.
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