US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 10, 2017.

US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 10, 2017. Russian Foreign Ministry Photo via AP

Trump's Disclosures Are Another Win for Russia

Putin has long used the pretext of counterterrorism cooperation to get what he wants from the West. It just paid off again.

In one way, it’s not exactly surprising that President Donald Trump reportedly shared with the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak some “highly classified” information about a specific threat from ISIS, setting off alarm bells inside the intelligence community that the president himself had just “jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.” After all those kind words traded back and forth and awash in the good cheer that was evident in those now infamous photos of their meeting last week, he just seems to have overshared a little.

But one reason the alleged presidential disclosure is hugely significant—even aside from its likely impact on Trump’s already strained relationship with his own intelligence community, and the likelihood it will damage intelligence-sharing relationships America depends on—is that it is yet another fruit of a strategy the Kremlin has long stuck to: telling the West that Russia is its ally on counterterrorism. This was, after all, what the Kremlin said Putin and Trump had discussed on their call two weeks ago, and it is the one area of cooperation that Putin continues to hold out to the West.

It is a brilliant ploy. After every terrorist attack—Nice, Berlin, Paris—Putin reaches out and offers his empathy. He feels it, too, because he too knows the burden of fighting terrorists. Why not work together to defeat a common enemy? It is a difficult proposition to say no to. And it’s easy to see how Trump, who spent his whole campaign railing against the threat of “radical Islamic terrorism,” and who does not see the harm in being friendly with Russia, not only didn’t say no, but decided to really, truly cooperate and share some information he thought would be useful in their common mission. He seemed to say as much this morning, when he tweeted that, “As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”

It is brilliant because Putin has credibility on the subject. In fact, in some ways, Putin’s presidency was born out of the war on terror. He spent two years fighting the Islamist insurgents in Russia’s predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region before he felt the West really woke up to the issue. It is why, on September 11, 2001, he was the first foreign leader to call George W. Bush to express not just his concern, but his empathy and hope that the two countries could work together on this pressing issue. Throughout the following decades, both Russia and the West continued to do battle with the terrorism phenomenon, but Russia suffered the brunt of it: there were far more—and far more spectacular—attacks on Russian soil.

For a while, and especially as relations with George W. Bush and then Barack Obama soured, Putin and the Russians were deeply embittered by the West’s inability to understand the constant threat under which they lived. And there seemed to be little gratitude for the help that the Russian government did provide, like allowing NATO to use a transit point on its territory for Afghanistan-bound soldiers and materiel, and a Russian intelligence service’s warning U.S. authorities about the Tsarnaev brothers in 2011, two years before they detonated to bombs at the Boston Marathon.

When Russia says it wants to cooperate with America on fighting terrorism, it is making a complex, and largely cynical, self-serving argument.

But then Ukraine happened. Taking advantage of chaos in Kiev, Putin invaded and annexed Crimea in March 2014. The move, which shattered international law and norms, got some of Russia’s biggest companies—and Putin’s closest friends—slapped with U.S. and EU sanctions. Putin responded with counter-sanctions and, after years of trying to have a seat at the table, Russia found itself isolated from the West in a way it hadn’t been since Soviet times.

Desperate to break out of the isolation, Putin hit on masterful strategy just as Russia sent forces into Syria and a wave of terrorist attacks hit Europe in 2015. After the Paris attacks in November of that year, the Kremlin stopped obfuscating and dragging its feet, and admitted that the passenger plane full of Russians that exploded in the sky above Sharm el-Sheikh that October had in fact been downed by ISIS. The Kremlin also published part of a telegram Putin sent to then-French President Francois Hollande. “This tragedy is additional proof of the barbaric nature of terrorism that is posing a challenge to human civilization. It is obvious that to counter this evil effectively the entire international community needs to truly join efforts,” Putin wrote. “I would like to confirm the readiness of the Russian side to closely cooperate with our French partners in investigating the crime committed in Paris.”

Read more: The Terrible Cost of Trump’s Disclosures
Related: The Dangers of Presidential Indiscretions
See also: The US Should Steer Clear of Russian ‘Help’ in Syria

The point was clearly that we are all facing one enemy, and it would be foolish to fight it separately. By July 2016, when a terrorist rammed a truck through a crowd in Nice, Putin cut to the chase and taped a video address to Hollande and the French. “Russia knows terrorism and the threat it creates for us all,” he said. “Our people have had to deal with similar tragedies many times, and we are deeply distressed at the news. We would like to express our sympathy and solidarity with the French nation. … I would like to stress again that only through a united effort can we defeat terrorism.”

Within the week, French jets were flying with the Russians over Syria, pounding ISIS targets. This reflected the achievement of one of Putin’s main goals in intervening in the Syrian conflict under the banner of counterterrorism: to force the West to grudgingly let him in from the cold in the common interest of fighting terrorism. Similar reasoning also explains why Russia—which mostly targets anti-Assad rebels, including those backed by the CIAbombs UN aid convoys, and helps the Assad government lay siege to unruly cities—went after ISIS in only one place in Syria: Palmyra. The ancient monument of culture treasured and wept over by the West was chosen on purpose, as was the concert by the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra among the remnants of Palmyra’s amphitheater. It sent a clear message: Russia is the only country willing to defend Western civilization from the savages. (At least until Russian and Syrian forces lost Palmyra.)

The point is, when Russia says it wants to cooperate with America on fighting terrorism, it is making a complex, and largely cynical, self-serving argument. But to realize that, one would have to understand the history and origins of this argument. The Obama administration mostly did, and it angered the Russians to no end. In Trump, the Russians have finally found an American president who will take their offer at face value and not ask too many questions. They also found an American president who simply wouldn’t know that, since 2014, counterterrorism cooperation with the Russians has been a one-way street. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.