Vladimir Putin: a man the West can do business with?
David Cameron’s meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Sochi may be fraught with mind games, but it could help bring an end to the civil war in Syria.
When David Cameron arrives at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday for talks with Vladimir Putin, he would be well advised to bring a good book with him to while away the time.
There is nothing Russia’s whimsical leader likes more than to play mind games with visiting dignitaries. During his first encounter with Angela Merkel, Mr Putin brought his Labrador Koni to the meeting because he had heard that the German Chancellor was afraid of dogs. Koni, by all accounts a gentle creature who wouldn’t hurt a fly, sat dutifully at her master’s side throughout the session; but it was said to have been a deeply unnerving experience for Mrs Merkel, who has suffered a phobia of dogs since she was bitten as a young girl.
And Mr Putin was up to his psychological tricks again this week when John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, arrived in Moscow for vital talks on the deepening crisis in Syria. Rather than making the envoy of the world’s most powerful nation feel at ease, Mr Putin kept him waiting in a Kremlin ante-room for three hours before the meeting started, and then proceeded to fiddle continuously with his pen while Mr Kerry set out his arguments for robust intervention in Syria to end the bloodshed.
It is now Mr Cameron’s turn to try his hand at reasoning with the Russian president and, if the recent problematic history of Anglo-Russian relations is anything to go by, the Prime Minister should be prepared for some awkward moments.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/10046577/Vladimir-Putin-a-man-the-West-can-do-business-with.htmlSo they will be sincerely trying to end the protracted Syrian revolutionary war of muslamic infighting. Why can not Britain and Nato by themselves come out and end this war with the help of Turkey as they successfully did it in Serbia. Where is any real need of Putin for them.