Trump, Putin hail US-Russia ties on WWII Elbe meeting anniversary

[Judi Lynn]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by JudyM (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Deutsche Welle


The two leaders issued a rare joint statement marking the 75th anniversary of US and Soviet forces meeting on Germany's Elbe river during World War II. They said the event showed how Russia and the US can work together.

25.04.2020

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday commemorated American and Soviet forces coming together during the final days of World War II.

When the two allies met on the Elbe River near Torgau in Germany on April 25, 1945 — with the US military advancing from the West and Soviet forces advancing from the East — it was seen as a milestone event in conflict.

The rare joint statement comes at a time of strained relations between Washington and Moscow. Trump himself has been complimentary of Putin and promoted stronger ties with the Kremlin, but the US Congress and intelligence officials have repeatedly lambasted the Russian government for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. The US and Russia have also been at odds over military intervention in Syria and arms control accords.

However, the Trump and Putin administrations put aside talk of differences on Saturday, saying the Elbe River meeting showed how their respective countries can "build trust and cooperate."


Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/trump-putin-hail-us-russia-ties-on-wwii-elbe-meeting-anniversary/a-53243305

[Newest Reality]

1. And then...

Does that mean we are officially apart of the Russian Oligarchy and mob, or are we saving that for later?

[BigmanPigman]

2. Why do I feel unsettled by this news?

[DENVERPOPS]

5. Probably

because it is a harbinger of things to come...........

They aren't even trying to hide it anymore......that is TRULY frightening, don't you think???????

[Igel]

11. Because you don't like the underlying analogy that presents itself?

That Trump = Truman and Putin = Stalin?

Or because only horrible, bad people could work with Russia?

Or maybe you suspect that Russia has nefarious goals--and, like after WWII, it should be stopped from advancing its agenda instead of having large swathes of territory and world power shared with it. (Yeah, I still think Truman made a bit of a dog's breakfast of Yalta, like JFK's faulty presentation probably made the USSR think it could easily put missiles in Cuba. Show weakness, get screwed. The Russian worldview is very simple: You screw or get screwed, there is no third way. It's not the old cultural polite norm, but people seem to prefer adopting it--it's both Soviet and very working class, and explains a lot of what's wrong in the world where one side is all good and the other side just pure evil. Which makes it also very religious-fundie.)

[duforsure]

3. trump is doing this for publicity for he and putin

To then declare he'll lift oil sanctions for putin , and trump will promote oil prices up higher for him, while costing Americans more. Likely from his being do in debt and compromised by putin , and he can't pay his bills , so he's using his position and policies in return to pay him with. This is planned , well planned by putin. russia's economy is in deep deep trouble now from the oil prices disaster.

[Roy Rolling]

4. What? Where?

Really? This event of Russia and the United States meeting after a successful operation is suspiciously current. At least in the mind of Trump, which is what makes it so scary. He views Russia as his comrade in the dismantling of western democracy.

He thinks it’s Mission Accomplished for him and Putin.

[Igel]

12. There have been a lot of this kind of thing.

Most don't notice.

For Russia, WWII imagery is very important. To a very large extent, the CP USSR derived its rationale through jingoism around anti-German/anti-fascist propaganda. With the rehabilitation of Germans in the GDR, the all-purpose "I'm Russian and don't like you" word became "fashist" ("fascist" according to the bilingual dictionary). That way it could be used against non-Germans and even omit reference to Germans at all. Of course, the Germans were Nazis and the Italians were the Fascists, but we can omit that. "Nazi" doesn't fit well in Russian.

Around 2005 there was a huge dust up between Poland and Russia over references in Putin's speech and who got to sit where on the podium on some anniversary.

Putin spoke of the resistance--French, German, etc.--in glowing terms. Suspiciously absent was the Polish resistance, which apparently didn't exist. And the Polish rep was placed in with the lesser resistances.

So this statement, Trump probably thinks, flatters Trump. It's probably Putin's idea and makes Putin look good and reinforces the government-as-savior xenophobic view of life that's widespread--outsiders bad, we're good. I doubt Trump recognizes the asymmetry in the perception of the statement's importance or relevance in Russia, or the sheer unimportance in the US.

I mean, I keep running into people as uninformed as many Russians. Many Russians think the US did nothing during the war, unless it was sitting things out until Russia was close to winning anyway; many Americans are really unclear that Russia did much of anything in WWII.

I find the Elbe to be an interesting stopping point. The Polabians were the Slavic group that migrated and set up shop the farthest west. "Polabia" is transparently (in Slavic languages) "along the Elbe", which is where they were in the 1600s. (They were all assimilated and their language extinct by the 1800s.)

[dalton99a]

6. Nice puppet.

Very nice puppet, indeed

[paleotn]

7. US Russian ties by rear.....

It was simply a moment where our interests coincided. A very, very brief moment. After which we were back to liberal democracy and the empire of evil. Everyone knew Stalin and the Soviets were just as bad if not worse than Hitler's Germany. Hitler was simply an existential threat to the west and Russia an ally of convenience. The blow back was it catapulted the Soviets to super power status instead of being their usual backwards backwater.

[Nitram]

8. Meanwhile, Dump has no idea who fought in WWII and why it was fought.

[Scarsdale]

9. Why not celebrate something more recent?

Donnie could give Putin the keys to D.C. and the Senate? You know, make it official. The gop would love to attend THAT.

[left-of-center2012]

10. duplicate ?

Trump, Putin Statement Stirs Concern Among Some
Sat Apr 25, 2020, 10:45 AM
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142479402

[JudyM]

13. Locking

Dupe of https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142479402

Please continue discussion at that earlier link.