Russia's Putin, Britain's May agree to meet to try to thaw frosty ties

[uawchild]

Source: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke by phone on Tuesday and agreed to meet "in the near future" to try to improve poor relations between Moscow and London, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Both leaders are due to attend a G20 summit in China early next month, giving them an opportunity to meet for the first time since May became prime minister in July.

Relations between Russia and Britain are strained by differences over Ukraine and Syria as well as by what London says is a sharp increase in flights by long-range Russian bombers near British air space.

The Kremlin said Putin and May had agreed to try to work to ensure that the two countries' intelligence services communicated with one another properly and to improve air safety, a reference to Russian military flights.

Both leaders had expressed dissatisfaction about the current state of Russian-British relations, the Kremlin said, adding that the phone call had taken place at Britain's initiative.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-britain-idUSKCN10K285

[glennward]

1. Am I the only one connecting the Russian dots?

Putin-Erdagon (Turkey)
Putin- May (Britain)

Are these moves by Putin to bolster Trump's foreign policy creeds to show that he is on the right track by making friends with Putin? Just asking.

[Xolodno]

2. I think Putin knows Trump is DOA as far as being President and is actually manuvering for...

...and eventual Clinton Presidency.

Last year Putin got chummy with Greece and now it looks like Turkey is going to be surrounded by Russian client states, Ankara probably thought the pipe dream of a pipeline from Saudi Arabia & Qatar through Syria and into Turkey is now just that, a pipe dream. So antagonizing Moscow is a lose-lose since its also a significant trading partner. So Putin is willing forgive the downing of the plane provided Edrogan is willing to be a pain in the ass to west, which hasn't exactly been warm to them either (and then there are reports that the FSB warned Edrogan of the impending coup).

The next administration is certainly going to take issue with Turkey's direction, so Ankara is going to hedge its bets.

With Britain, if they go through with the Brexit, they are not going to get favorable term in trading with the EU, so they will have to reach out to non-EU nations, if they get a favorable terms with Russia, the US will have less leverage on leaning on them.

And then there is the elephant in the room, Ukraine could implode. Poroshenko has maintained (along with his buddies) a strangle hold on his economic interests despite the pledge to off load them. Our guy Yats was given the boot and promised reforms are moving at a snails pace. Also read another report that the Ukrainian Army is getting frustrated and wants to drop the Minsk II agreement (despite not even fulfilling it halfway) and push into the revolting republics. And if its true that the FSB/Russian Army stopped a group of Ukrainians from the Army attempting to enter Crimea for the intent to sabotage (very cynical that actually happened and at the very least is exaggerated), it could mean Kiev is starting to lose control of the Army. It could all go to hell and Russia could intervene as a "peace keeping" maneuver to prevent another civil war like Syria or the Balkans...and the rest of Europe wouldn't be able to do a thing about it....nor would they want to. Wouldn't be surprised after the dust settles that the industrial east Ukraine (along with the natural gas deposits) where the "civil war" is being fought now asks to rejoin Russia under a special status and Kiev agrees to it (with a gun to the head). Then western Ukraine remains as a country predominately agricultural.