Ex-U.S. officials decode Vladimir Putin’s personal denial of election meddling

President Vladimir Putin’s personal denial to President Trump that Moscow meddled in last year’s U.S. elections is exactly the type of Russian deception that could jeopardize future diplomacy — including arms control negotiations, former Bush and Obama administration experts with long experience dealing with the Kremlin say.

“We expect our leaders to confront liars and to condemn them — not negotiate with them,” Sam Charan, an Obama-era State Department arms control and non-proliferation advisor, said of the weekend Trump-Putin discussion on the sideline of an Asian economic summit.

The analysts noted that since the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of the Crimea, Moscow-orchestrated misinformation campaigns have dramatically increased in frequency and effectiveness, including a major Kremlin press to obscure the details of a nuclear missile program which violates a major nuclear arms limitation deal with Washington signed three decades ago.

But the Russian intelligence operations, despite their success, only raise the chances of damaging blowback.

“A lot of [Russian] behavior is counterproductive and clearly has contributed to a massive breakdown in trust in the relationship, not just between the U.S. and Russian governments, but also our societies and U.S Congress and the U.S. media,” said Paul J. Saunders, executive director of the Center for the National Interest and a senior State Department official under President George W. Bush. “The question is: Do they actually thinking that we will believe these deceptions?”

Last weekend, while Mr. Trump declined to say whether he believed Mr. Putin’s denials about election meddling, the U.S. president did emphasize Russia’s leader made clear he’s not interested in dwelling on the issue.

Mr. Trump said the hacking controversy served as an “artificial barrier” erected by Democrats that blocks better relations with Russia going forward, including cooperation on such issues as North Korea and the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

Mr. Charan said that many Russian officials see their geopolitical deceptions as simply equivalent to what they perceive to be similar disinformation coming out of Washington — such the Bush administration’s justification for invading Iraq based on what was later revealed to be false evidence the country had weapons of mass destruction.

“The deception can be seen as the Russians acting in a way they think a great power should act,” he said.