A more detailed timeline of the 5 Trump-Putin meetings

[MBS]

courtesy of Talking Points Memo:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/what-we-know-trump-putin-meetings

This weekend brought the remarkable news that President Donald Trump went to extreme lengths to conceal or limit access to information about his in-person meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. . . The two world leaders have interacted face-to-face in five different locations since Trump took office in January 2017. Sometimes they’ve sat down for extensive private conversations; other times they’ve just exchanged words in full view of press cameras. More than one of those meetings have coincided with fraught moments in the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Per the Post, no substantial record of any of them exists. Foreign policy experts say that these off-the-record encounters leave the rest of the U.S. national security apparatus in the dark about how to navigate the country’s relationship with Russia, allow Russia to control public perceptions of the talks, and leave Trump more vulnerable to manipulation from Putin.

TPM lists the five meetings and lists for each:
Where the meeting happened
Who was there
What happened
. . . both at any formal meeting and in informal/private conversations

Do read the TPM article for full details, but here is a list of the meetings and a few salient tidbits:

(1) July 2017: Trump accepts Putin denials of Russian meddling
Where .. . . Sidelines of G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany
Who. .
Formal meeting: Trump, Putin, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, unidentified interpreters from U.S. and Russia, unidentified U.S. linguist
Dinner conversation: Trump, Putin, Putin’s interpreter

Note: This (the dinner conversation) is the occasion when Trump talked with Putin without an American interpreter present; he only used Putin's interpreter.

(2) November 2017: A friendly encounter following Mueller’s first indictments
Where . . . Annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam
Who. . Trump, Putin, large entourages for each world leader
What happened. . .The two leaders did speak informally on several occasions during the summit, as CNN documented. They chatted animatedly while walking to a photo-op, spoke again briefly before one of the conference’s sessions, and met briefly a third time during a second photo-op with the other heads of state in attendance. These chummy conversations happened the week after Mueller issued his first indictments, charging former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and campaign adviser Rick Gates for matters related to their illegal foreign lobbying.

(3) July 2018: Trump casts doubt on Russian election meddling at explosive Helsinki summit
Where. . 2018 U.S.-Russia summit at the presidential palace in Helsinki, Finland
Who. . At one-on-one meeting: Trump, Putin, U.S. interpreter Marina Gross, an unidentified interpreter for Russia. . .
What happened Ahead of the much-heralded Trump-Russia summit in Finland, Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking the computer networks of Hillary Clinton campaign staffers... . .No Cabinet officials or aides were allowed in the room while Trump and Putin spoke for two hours in private. The Post reported that Trump’s interpreter, Marina Gross, emerged with “pages of notes.” The two leaders then went into a working lunch with other senior U.S. and Russian officials, where they continued to discuss the Syrian civil war and other foreign policy issues.. . . Then came the stunning press conference. With the world watching, Trump questioned U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and said he didn’t “see any reason” to disbelieve Putin’s claims that his country did nothing wrong. Trump even praised Putin’s “incredible” offer to have Russian investigators assist Mueller with his probe.

(4) Nov 2018: A brief hello in Paris
Where . . .100-years anniversary of armistice ending World War I, Paris, France
Who. . . Trump, Putin, other world leaders
What happened . . Photos from one lunch at the Elysee Palace showed the leaders sitting across from each other, and other wire images showed them shaking hands and Putin flashing a “thumbs up” sign at Trump as they gathered with other leaders for a ceremony near the Arch de Triomphe.

(5) Dec 2018: An informal meeting despite tensions over Ukraine
Where. . Sideline conversations at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Who . .Trump, Putin, other world leaders
What happened: Trump and Putin were set to discuss security issues, arms control, trade and issues in the Middle East and Ukraine at the G-20. . . But the planning was thrown off when Russia opened fire on Ukrainian boats in late November . . . No formal meeting ended up occurring. But the White House confirmed that the pair had an “informal” conversation at a cultural dinner at the Teatro Colón theater attended by other world leaders and their wives. Bloomberg reported that they briefly discussed the naval confrontation in Ukraine.

[Farmer-Rick]

1. He and his BFF

A Traitor and a huge pig size man gets together with a Russian mob boss and really short man.

When the Traitor hugs the Russian mob boss he could inadvertently squash him...we can only hope.