Harald Malmgren, Ambassador, International Negotiator, Senior Assistant to US Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, spoke about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and explained his success in the political arena in an article for the UnHerd portal on January 13.
Malmgren was introduced to Putin by Yevgeny Primakov, who was called the “Russian Kissinger”. The American negotiator met with him several times in Moscow during the Cold War, when he advised Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford. In 1992, the organizer of a meeting at the CSIS think tank invited Malmgren to join a Russian-American commission in St. Petersburg, whose goal was to establish business and banking ties with the West.
“When I came to the first meeting, I saw several people gathered around Kissinger and a man who, I was told, was called Putin. The official introduced himself to me and said that Primakov asked him to introduce me to Putin. He interrupted his conversation with Kissinger to announce my arrival. Putin warmly replied that he was looking forward to chatting with me about how I see the world from inside Washington,” wrote Malmgren.
He described how he was able to talk to Putin between meetings and asked the strategist about a key obstacle between Western businessmen and Russians in establishing business ties. Malmgren replied that this obstacle is the lack of legally valid property rights. This leaves no grounds for resolving disputes.
“I got the impression that Putin was one of the smartest among most politicians that I met in Washington and other capitals of the world,” shared an adviser to American presidents.
Malmgren also recalled how Putin admired Tsar Peter the Great several times, and this led the American to the idea that the Russian leader sees himself as his incarnation.
“I haven’t been to the Kremlin since 1988, but I’m told Putin has hung portraits of Peter the Great in several important meeting rooms instead of portraits of himself, as is customary. I think it is slowly becoming clear to Biden, NATO and Ukraine that there is more to Putin than meets the eye,” he concluded.
On January 11, foreign media assessed the Russian-American negotiations on security guarantees, which took place the day before in Geneva. The New York Times newspaper concluded that the victory in the first meeting was with Russia. Analyst Chris Miller of Foreign Affairs opined that the US strategy of “intimidating Russia with sanctions” will end up failing unless the administration of US President Joe Biden announces more specific and serious punitive measures for the Russian economy.
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
