Tuesday, February 7, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

We don’t know what Trump gave away in Helsinki: Marcus Kolga in New York Daily News

July 17, 2018
in Columns, Europe and Russia, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Program, In the Media, Latest News, Marcus Kolga
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A

What emerged in Helsinki, in tragic contrast to the historic Reagan-Gorbachev moment Trump was seeking to recreate, was a scene of breathtaking appeasement and submission, writes Marcus Kolga.

By Marcus Kolga, July 17, 2018

President Trump has dealt a severe blow to U.S. global influence and the stable international order that relies on American moral leadership.

Where Presidents, throughout history, have used their position to maintain international stability and promote US values of freedom and democracy, Donald Trump has consistently and unapologetically saddled up with dictators whose aim is the exact opposite.

In Helsinki, as in Singapore, the outcome of Trump’s summit has been abject failure. Worse than a lack of progress, it appears that the president is either unwittingly or intentionally facilitating the normalization of these murderously repressive regimes and participating in their efforts to reconfigure world order in their own image.

Like his choice of fashion and style, Trump’s worldview is drifting aimlessly in the Cold War nuclear world of the 1970’s and 80’s while being led by the moral guidance of a cliche Wall Street trader of the same era.

What emerged in Helsinki, in tragic contrast to the historic Reagan-Gorbachev moment Trump was seeking to recreate, was a scene of breathtaking appeasement and submission, rarely witnessed on an international stage.

In the hours leading up to the meeting, Trump blamed his own country for the poor state of Russia-US relations – completely disregarding Russian aggression against Estonia and Georgia; the illegal annexation of Crimea; the ongoing detention and assassination of Russian pro-democracy and human rights activists; the poisoning of critics on foreign soil; the bombing of Syrian civilians; and the meddling and disruption of multiple western referendums and elections, etc.

Never before has a US leader appeared so weak — even questioning the credibility of his own intelligence community about Kremlin meddling in the US elections, in favor of statements made by a corrupt and repressive dictator.

By undermining U.S. global leadership and casting doubts about the cohesion of its alliances, Trump is helping facilitate Vladimir Putin’s goal to reestablish Russian hegemony in Europe by dividing and conquering.

Recent statements by Trump that “NATO is as bad as NAFTA” and that the EU was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ diminish US credibility, as allies begin to seriously question the status of their relations with the United States.

These concerns were exacerbated in Helsinki, as Trump heaped unwarranted praise on Putin, leading to further speculation about what might have been discussed and potentially agreed to in the one-on-one between the two Presidents.

In Singapore, Trump unilaterally agreed to end U.S. participation in critically important military exercises on the Korean peninsula, leaving South Korea exposed. In the days leading up to the Helsinki summit, Trump signaled his willingness to do the same in the Baltic Sea region — a region that Putin seeks to control and at greatest risk of future Russian aggression. What concessions were agreed to in the one-on-one, are unknown.

We do know that one of the central issues to the ongoing Russia probe, Magnitsky human rights sanctions, were likely discussed. Magnitsky sanctions were the topic of the June 2015 meeting between Kremlin lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, and members of the Trump campaign team, currently being probed by Mueller. The sanctions target many Kremlin officials and Putin associates for their abuse of human rights and corruption, and their removal has been a top priority for Putin since their introduction in 2012.

The leader of the global Magnitsky human rights campaign, Bill Browder, was the subject of a rant by Putin in Helsinki, after he was questioned about Kremlin cooperation in the extradition of 12 Russian intelligence agents indicted last week by the Mueller probe.

While Putin’s rant against Browder underscores the effectiveness of Magnitsky sanctions, there is concern that their removal may have also been a topic — further undermining U.S. moral leadership on human rights. On Tuesday, Russia announced that it is seeking to question current and former U.S. State Department and intelligence agencies about Browder’s activities, in a likely attempt to prosecute and eventually extradite him in efforts to silence Browder and other Putin critics.

If there is a silver lining to be found, it may be that the bond between America’s traditional allies in Canada and Europe is growing stronger because of Donald Trump and the decline of U.S. leadership that he is presiding over. While the dictators and autocrats in Moscow, Damascus, Minsk, Pyongyang, Tehran and beyond rejoice the growing void of global leadership, the western world can only hope that America will return to eventually stand up for the true values, freedom, democracy and human rights, that have made America and the western alliance so strong and stable since the end of WWII.

Marcus Kolga is a specialist on Russian disinformation and foreign policy and is a documentary filmmaker, writer and digital communications strategist. He is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad.

Tags: Marcus KolgaPutinRussiaTrump
Previous Post

Building on what works for pharmacare: Sean Speer for Inside Policy

Next Post

Renewable energy remains a minor source of energy: Philip Cross in the Hill Times

Related Posts

It’s time to leverage Canada’s energy advantage into a geopolitical one, too: Shuvaloy Majumdar in Maclean’s
Columns

For the oil patch, ‘just transition’ is buzzword legislation, not sound economics: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Globe

February 7, 2023
Prioritizing gender identity over sex in prisons endangers female prisoners
Releases

Prioritizing gender identity over sex in prisons endangers female prisoners

February 6, 2023
Greedflation? It’s a government thing: Philip Cross in the Financial Post
Columns

Jagmeet Singh uses confusion about private care to support the status quo: Shawn Whatley in the National Post

February 6, 2023
Next Post
Renewable energy remains a minor source of energy: Philip Cross in the Hill Times

Renewable energy remains a minor source of energy: Philip Cross in the Hill Times

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.