Trump finally meets Putin amid ongoing investigation into collusion

After months of trying to make it work long-distance, U.S. President Donald Trump finally met Russian President Vladimir Putin face-to-face for the first time Friday. The highly anticipated tête-à-tête comes as investigations probe whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow to alter the outcome of last year’s election. But while many might expect fireworks as the two leaders meet, officials say the encounter will be more about the pair getting to know each other.

The gathering takes place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, and the world will be watching to see whether Trump mentions Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The two men are also likely to talk about Ukraine, the Paris climate change agreement, and, of course, North Korea.

The event will be scrutinized from all angles, from what the leaders say, to their body language, to what they’re wearing. Crucially their initial handshake took place in private. “[I expect] an Olympian level of macho posturing between these two leaders,” Derek Chollet, former senior national security official in President Obama’s administration, told CNN.

Many in the White House are worried that Putin’s vast experience in situations like this will see him out-maneuver Trump. “It is a win-win situation for Putin,” Andrei Kolesnikov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told the New York Times.

Ahead of the meeting, neither leader was seeking to play nice. At a press conference in Poland Thursday, Trump accused Russia of “destabilizing behavior” while in an op-ed published in German financial newspaper Handelblatt, Putin criticized Trump’s trade policies and recent U.S. sanctions against Russia. In April, Trump said relations with Russia were at “an all-time low” despite claims during his campaign that he would seek to work with Putin during his presidency.

The meeting is scheduled to last 35 minutes and will begin at 3:45 p.m. local time (9:45 a.m. ET) with four other people expected to be in the room when Trump meets Putin, according to Axios — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and two translators.

Last week National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said there was “no specific agenda — it’s really going to be whatever the president wants to talk about.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also attempted to suppress any expectations of major breakthroughs from the encounter. “The two presidents getting to know each other is probably the main part of this meeting,” Peskov told reporters.

As leaders gathered for the summit Thursday night, German riot police used water cannons in clashes with thousands of anti-capitalist protesters who took part in a “Welcome to Hell” march. Hamburg police said 76 officers had been injured, including one who suffered a serious eye injury from a firework.

Here are the topics Trump might raise at his meeting with Putin:

• Election interference: The topic that has dominated news cycles since Trump’s inauguration. On Thursday Democrats made it clear in a letter to Trump that he would be in “severe dereliction” of his duties if he didn’t confront Putin about this issue. However, it’s unclear if it will be mentioned during the meeting. While Trump did say at a press conference Thursday that he “thinks” Russia was involved , he diluted the statement by saying he also thinks other countries were meddling in the election and ultimately “nobody really knows.”
• Syria: According to a report in the Daily Beast, Tillerson said the U.S. was willing to discuss “joint mechanisms” with Russia to stabilize the vicious Syrian civil war. The move reflects the administration’s newly formed position on Syria, following months of flip-flopping. The new strategy would see Syrian President Bashar Assad remain in power, concessions to using Russia’s proposed “safe zones,” and it would depend on cooperation from Moscow – including using Russian troops on the ground in certain parts of the country.
• North Korea: Following this week’s provocative test of an intercontinental missile by Pyongyang, Trump is likely to seek reassurances from Putin that they are on the same side when it comes to dealing with the threat posed by Kim Jong Un. However, Russian officials disagreed with a U.N. Security Council condemnation of the North Korean test Thursday, claiming the missile was not an ICBM — suggesting Moscow and Washington might not be on the same page regarding the hermit kingdom.
• Climate change: Putin is strongly in favor of the Paris climate agreement, calling it a “secure basis for long-term climate regulation,” and saying that Russia wanted to make a “comprehensive contribution to its implementation.” Trump, of course, has taken America out of the agreement. With Washington and Moscow holding such divergent views, it’s unlikely any progress will be made during the meeting on climate change.

What Russia wants:

• Putin is unlikely to come to the table without demands of his own, and at the top of the list will be an easing of sanctions imposed by the U.S. following the annexation of Crimea. The Kremlin will also be seeking the return of two compounds seized by Trump’s predecessors in the final days of his presidency, as part of sanctions imposed for interference in the presidential election.