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Trump wants Putin summit in Reykjavik

Britain fears leak of its secrets to Moscow

TimShipman, PoliticalEditor | TobyHarnden in Washington | RichardKerbaj | TomHarper

January 15 2017, 12:01am,The Sunday Times

The Reykjavik summit between Putin and Trump could reset western relations with the
Kremlin
M I K H A I L P O C H U Y E V / TA S S / A L A M Y

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Donald Trump is planning to hold a summit with Vladimir

Putin within weeks of becoming president emulating Ronald
Reagans Cold War deal-making in Reykjavik with Mikhail
Gorbachev.

Trump and his team have told British o cials that their rst
foreign trip will be a meeting with the Russian leader, with the

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Icelandic capital in pole position to host the superpower talks as

it did three decades ago.

In a bid to reset western relations with the Kremlin, Trump will

begin work on a deal limiting nuclear weapons. Sources who
have discussed the plans with o cials at the Russian embassy
in London say Moscow is set to agree to a summit between the
two leaders.

Trumps bromance with Vladimir Putin

Senior gures in the government fear that a warming of US-

Russian relations under Trump risks leaving Britain which
has led the calls for sanctions against Moscow over Putins
aggression in Ukraine and Syria out in the cold.

With Trump reeling from claims that Russia holds material with
which it can blackmail the new president, The Sunday Times
can reveal that:

British intelligence has sought reassurance from the CIA that

the identity of British agents in Russia will be protected when
intelligence is shared, amid concerns about the closeness of
Trumps team to Moscow

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Christopher Steele, the former MI6 spy who drew up the

dossier on Trump, circulated it out of a sense of patriotism
because he feared that his ndings would be hushed up by the
FBI

Trumps claims that he has nothing to do with Russia had

been called into question by his son, Donald Jr, who reportedly
said in a speech in 2008 that Russians make up a pretty
disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our [Trump
Organisation] assets

Russia sparked fresh alarm by announcing plans to move

thousands of tanks and tens of thousands of troops to Natos
borders this year in a development that has deeply unnerved
the Baltic states.

Downing Street is nalising plans for Theresa May to visit

Trump at the White House in the second half of February.

Yesterday Trump said he would consider dropping sanctions

against Russia if the Kremlin proved helpful in ghting
terrorism and reaching other goals important to the United
States, although the sanctions would remain in place at least
for a period of time.

He added that he was willing to meet Putin. I understand that

they [the Russians] would like to meet, and thats absolutely ne
with me, he said.

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US president Ronald Reagan met his Russian counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland in 1986

A source who has discussed the plan with Trump and with
o cials at the Russian embassy in London said: The idea of a
summit with Putin is denitely on the cards. The Russians are
also keen on it.

A Trump adviser conrmed that the new president intended to

meet Putin at a venue outside the United States and Russia
very soon and that Reykjavik was under active
consideration. The Icelandic capital was the site of a 1986
summit between Reagan and Gorbachev, the Soviet leader.
Those talks broke down, but ultimately led to a 1987 nuclear
accord.

The Trump adviser said such a meeting would play to the Rus-
sian presidents longing to be seen as a major player on the
world stage. What does Putin want? the adviser said. Prestige
centre stage at the summit, the one-on-one meeting, the hand
on the back from Trump. That gives the US tremendous
leverage. Mr Trump is master of the photo op and he will use
that skill.

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Until we have established whether Trump
and his team can be trusted, were going to
hold back

The prospect of a Trump-Putin love-in is causing concern in

British intelligence and political circles following the furore last
week over claims that Russia holds material that gives it
leverage over Trump.

A US intelligence source said the CIA and other agencies saw

Trump as a hostile actor who was very possibly
compromised by Russia. A British intelligence source with
extensive transatlantic experience said US spies had labelled
Trump and his advisers links to the Kremlin problematic.

Until we have established whether Trump and senior members

of his team can be trusted, were going to hold back, the source
said.

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Putting it bluntly, we cant risk betraying sources and methods
to the Russians.

There are already political tensions between Britain and

America over Trumps approach to Russia. A Foreign O ce
source said Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, had been
briefed on the contents of Steeles dossier before travelling to
New York and Washington last week to meet Steve Bannon and
Jared Kushner, senior advisers to Trump.

A source who has discussed the talks with Trumps team said
Johnsons insistence on warning about Russian dirty tricks
was not welcomed by Bannon and Kushner: The meeting didnt
go well. They were not very impressed.

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Concerns about Russian aggression have been stoked by the

recent reports that Putin is planning to move troops and tanks
to Belarus and its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad this autumn.
The deployment will be 20 times larger than a 2013 exercise
that was itself described as very provocative and worrisome
by Natos then supreme commander, General Philip Breedlove.

The Russian embassy in London referred calls to the foreign

a airs ministry in Moscow which did not comment.

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