Putin Offers to Provide a ‘Record’ of Trump’s Disclosures to Russian Envoys
that It’s
Mr. Putin, who has a long record of seizing on foreign crises to make Russia’s voice heard, announced during a news conference in Sochi, Russia, the Black Sea resort
that has become his equivalent of Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, that he has a "record" of the American president’s meeting at the White House with two senior Russian officials and was ready to give it to Congress — so long as Mr. Trump does not object.
Aleksei V. Makarkin, deputy head of the Center for Political Technologies, a Moscow research group, said he doubted Mr. Putin had set out to offend Mr. Trump
and questioned whether the Russian record would ever see the light of day.
To that end, the Russian government has been angling for months for a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump, who has met a host of foreign leaders since he took office in January
but only spoken with the Russian president by telephone.
By ANDREW HIGGINSMAY 17, 2017
MOSCOW — Asserting himself abroad with his customary disruptive panache, President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday jumped into the furor over President Trump’s disclosure of classified information to Russian diplomats, declaring
that nothing secret had been revealed and that he could prove it.
Making light of the Oval Office episode and the value of Mr. Trump’s disclosure, Mr. Putin joked
that he would reprimand Mr. Lavrov because "he hasn’t shared those secrets with us." Mr. Putin’s fans in Russia reacted with delight to Mr. Putin’s move, with Sergei A. Markov, an analyst close to the Kremlin, rejoicing on Twitter over the Russian president’s assertiveness.
Valeriy Solovey said that I think Putin gets personal pleasure from exploiting the vulnerable position Trump has found himself in,