One of the leading Russian experts on U.S.-Russian relations, Dmitri Trenin, today told a pompous Christiane Amanpour of CNN that Russia “can consider the results of the meetings this week as a tactical win on Russia’s central security concerns.”
Trenin, who served in the Soviet army from 1972-93, and at Moscow’s Institute of Europe and the NATO Defense College in Rome, is now the head of the Carnegie Moscow Center. “No one in Russia expected the U.S. to accept the Russian demands, but there will now be a written answer from Washington,” he said. “This is not the end—this is the beginning.”
Countering Amanpour’s claim that Putin is preparing Russia for war, Trenin said: “Putin is very careful in using military force. In Crimea, not a shot was fired. In Syria, professionals did the fighting, with few casualties. Kazakhstan is a victory—they are beginning withdrawal today. This talk of war is on the Western side, not on the Russian side. There is no feeling of impending war in Ukraine…. Putin is using the troops as leverage, to get the U.S. to listen and negotiate, to change the dynamic of European security development.”
