By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
In the hour-long telephone call on Thursday (July 3) between the presidents of Russia and the United States, something President Vladimir Putin said, and also didn’t say, got up President Donald Trump’s nose.
Trump was so confident he could persuade Putin to agree to access to the Russian market for Trump’s perfumes for men and women – Fight Fight Fight cologne and Victory 45-47 – that he announced their telephone call 21 minutes before it started:
Putin was more reticent. “The Kremlin will not be announcing to media in advance a possible date and time of a telephone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump and will provide information only if such a conversation takes place, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. ‘We are never announcing such telephone calls in advance and we will inform you following the fact when and if this happens,’ Peskov said at a news briefing.” It was two in the Moscow afternoon – three hours before the call began.
Putin then left a public appearance to prepare. “No good to keep him waiting – he may be offended,” Putin told Tass. The state news agency does not translate irony from Russian to English
After the call had concluded at 11 am Washington time, 6 pm Moscow time, Trump said nothing. He tweeted instead that “we brought the price of Eggs back to what they were supposed to be.” At the end of Trump’s day, six hours later, he was celebrating a flyover he has arranged for Friday of B-2s and F-35s over the White House. But there was a word about the Putin call in a brief airfield Q&A although it has been omitted from the excerpt on Trump’s tweet log.
In fact, according to the longer Fox News video record, Trump told reporters that his expectations had been dashed. “We had a call. It was pretty long call. We talked about a lotta things, including Iran. And we also talked about the, as you know, the war, Ukraine. And I, uh, I’m not happy about that. No, I didn’t make any progress with him today at all.” — Min 1:57-2:03.
Source: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6375225337112
Trump also denied he had stopped the flow of US weapons to Ukraine. “Why did you pause?” Trump was asked. “We haven’t. We are giving weapons… we are trying to help them, but Biden, you know, emptied out our whole country giving them weapons. And we have to make sure we have enough for ourselves.” Min 5:29.
In short, Trump has rejected every one of the terms for an end-of-war settlement in the Ukraine which Putin has tabled.
Putin’s foreign affairs assistant and spokesman, Yury Ushakov, does not want to leave a bad smell. In his read-out of the presidents’ conversation, posted by the Kremlin thirty minutes after it had ended – five hours before Trump made his comments – Ushakov acknowledged that in the opening small talk Putin had “wished Donald Trump success in implementing the [tax law and budget] changes he envisioned and, naturally, offered greetings for Independence Day, the national day of the United States, which will be celebrated tomorrow. At the same time, it was noted by our side that Russia had played a significant part in the establishment of the United States as a nation, including during the War of Independence, fought 250 years ago, and later during the Civil War, which ended 160 years ago. It was stated that our countries are bound not only by their alliance during World Wars One and Two, but also by deeper historical ties.”
About Trump’s Fight Fight Fight, the USAF bombing raid on Iran on June 22, Ushakov says Putin “emphasised it was crucial to settle any and all contentious issues, differences, and conflicts exclusively via political and diplomatic means. The two leaders agreed to maintain contact on the issue between the respective foreign services, defence ministries, and presidential aides.” Ushakov’s references to “political and diplomatic means” and to “contact…between the…defence ministries” was Putin’s hint that if Trump is thinking of another US Air Force attack on Iran, Russian-supplied air defence systems may be activated and fired.
Source: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/77354
On the war in the Ukraine, “naturally the issues surrounding Ukraine were also discussed,” Ushakov has recorded. “Donald Trump has once again raised the issue of ending the hostilities as soon as possible. In turn, Vladimir Putin noted that we still continued the search for a political, negotiated solution to the conflict. He informed his counterpart on the progress in implementing the humanitarian agreements reached during the second round of direct Russian-Ukrainian talks held in Istanbul. He also noted Russia was willing to pursue negotiations. Additionally, the President of Russia said that Russia would strive to achieve its goals, namely the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, the bitter confrontation that we are seeing now. Russia will not back down from these goals.”
Putin’s emphasis to Trump in the connection he made between the phrases “root causes” and “not back down” upset the US president. He was still smarting five hours later when he said: “I’m not happy about that. No, I didn’t make any progress with him today at all.”
So upset was Trump that he failed to register Putin’s offer to give Trump’s business constituents money. According to Ushakov, Putin’s deals included “an exchange of motion pictures promoting traditional values, which both we and the Trump administration hold dear” and “a number of promising projects in economy, notably the energy sector and space exploration.”
Earlier in the week, anticipating the Putin-Trump call, a Moscow source in a position to know said: “Trump is avoiding talking details. He is not getting any concessions. He asked for unconditional ceasefire and did not get it. He is not ready to completely abandon Ukraine.”
Ushakov has attempted to paper over the widening differences with Putin which Trump is now acknowledging. “I would like to point out that the conversation between the two presidents has, as always, shown that they are on the same page. It was candid, business-minded, and concrete.”
As for concrete business with Trump’s line of cologne and perfume, no Moscow source in a position to know claims to know. At the last report of Putin’s taste in perfume, a Russian perfumer said she had created “for Putin, a chord of metallic freshness, tart and dynamic, with the warm breathing of sandal and cedar, the smoke of the vetiver and expensive leather. …The president’s perfume was placed in a box in the form of an ancient chest, and a bottle was placed in the form of an old flask with a spray gun… I [Zhanna Gladkova] hear from rumours that Putin enjoyed my fragrance before meeting with the heads of state…mixing grapefruit with bergamot.”
Left: https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/331719-the-best-perfum-of-putin (February 2020); right, https://ria.ru/20190105/1549059349.html (January 5, 2019).
In January 2019 it was reported that a Moscow perfumer was selling male and female perfumes with Putin’s image on the bottle, box, and advertising. “Male and female fragrances, inspired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, appeared on sale in Moscow. At the same time, the Kremlin reported that it did not consent to the use of the name of Vladimir Putin for commercial purposes. ‘No, no one was approved,’ presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti.”
“My new Trump fragrances are here…They represent winning. We all want to be winning,” Trump says in a sales promotion on the website https://gettrumpfragrances.com/
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