It was all derived from the familiar strategy employed by him and his melancholic Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov: Obscure the truth, postpone responses, create confusion, introduce a bit of whataboutism, express sorrow while being overly ingratiating, and, of course, offer some incentives.
Just the previous day, Lavrov had delivered an hour-and-a-half-long seminar on Kremlin-style diplomacy, serving as a cautionary tale for the White House.
His discussion partners—a trio of enthusiastic supporters led by former Fox News host Judge Andrew Napolitano—were easily swayed, nodding appreciatively and laughing as he lamented the (most terrible of situations) need to use a unisex restroom in Scandinavia. They enthusiastically agreed when he woefully recounted the many injustices the West had inflicted upon his peace-loving nation: the baseless allegations of poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the attempts to eliminate Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, or the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
Ultimately, he pointed to Europe and NATO’s broken promises and malevolent actions.
As Lavrov stacked excuses and diversions, his emotional address revealed that — just as Putin reiterated yesterday — Russia intends to manipulate Trump in a similar fashion to how it interacted with former U.S. President Barack Obama regarding Syria, employing delaying tactics to hinder America from responding to their client for deploying chemical weapons.
Of course, unlike Obama, Trump did authorize an airstrike on a Syrian military airbase during his first term in retaliation for a chemical weapons assault. Thus, Putin has likely factored in the possibility that an irritated Trump might respond aggressively. This necessitated a careful adjustment of his reaction to the ceasefire proposal.
