Geopolitical Perspective of Helsinki Summit

With Chris Miller, Assistant Professor of International History at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University

In the latest episode of the FPRI’s The BackChannel, Host Ron Granieri welcomes Templeton Fellows Dominic Tierney and Nada Bakos along with special guests Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Chris Miller, Professor of Tufts University and the Director of FPRI’s Eurasia Program, to discuss the Helsinki summit and its impact on contemporary geopolitics. Continuing in the FPRI tradition of analyzing developments through the lens of history, geography, and culture, Granieri guides a conversation that views the Trump-Putin meeting within the context of President Trump’s loudly proclaimed if vaguely defined effort to reshape American relations with Russia and Europe. The meeting itself, which included a long tête-à-tête between the Presidents with no other officials present, courted controversy; the post-meeting press conference, where President Trump appeared to side with Putin against his own intelligence agencies, stoked the fires of controversy even further. How do we make sense of the meeting? What led to it? What did the principals accomplish? What comes next?

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo