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WhyTrump

thoughts?

Ampersand

Yes. The consensus opinion is that Putin is ensuring elections are rigged and biased.

Winning an election you rigged is not worthy of congratulations and the President of the USA should stand up for real open democracy.

kmelkevolution17

Trump made a good decision by congratulation Putin. This may have decreased tensions and could make the U.S.’s relationship with Russia better.

melef

No, Trump should contrast communication sign Putin in order to decrease tensions with Russia and strengthen the U.S.’s relationship with Russia. This could also help Trump fulfill his global agenda.

whiteflame

Considering both recent news regarding the poisoning of an ex-spy, which resulted in the expulsion of Russian diplomats from England, and less recent news regarding their interference in our presidential campaign, I’d say it was a very poor choice to a) contact Putin and congratulate him over a victory that was basically assured anyway (and not just as a result of his popularity - Putin doesn’t exactly run clean elections [http://www.newsweek.com/russia-5-reasons-why-putins-election-sham-850996]), and b) to publicly announce that he had done this and that, at no point in their conversation nor at the planned meeting thereafter, did he address either of the above issues.

@melef and @kmelkevolution17, what, precisely, do we get from better relations with Putin and Russia? We’re associating ourselves with a pseudo-dictator who has gone out of his way to support actual dictators like Assad who have committed substantial war crimes. Doing that harms our image, and it damages our relationships with our current allies.

someone234

Wise or not wise, it was ultimately pointless because the results were fixed.

MayCaesar

It was wrong according to the Western values: we are supposed to be promoting freedom and democracy, not congratulating dictators. That said, from the diplomatic point of view, it is generally considered a good tone to congratulate the winners of the foreign elections, even rigged ones, as it makes it easier to communicate with the new administration afterwards.

While what Trump did was no bueno, I am pretty sure any other US president would have done the same. Both Bush and Obama tried playing nice with Putin initially, and only became disappointed in the prospects of such treatment a few years after being elected, when it became obvious that Putin treats any expression of good will as weakness to be exploited. I think Donald will realize this too in a year or two.