I know few people seriously believe that Trump is anything more than at best a patsy of Russia and at worse a willing agent. But suspending those well-founded beliefs for a moment: if you assumed that Trump actually wanted to negotiate on behalf of the US with Russia, you'd then conclude that he is the worst negotiator that the world of international diplomacy has ever seen. He's basically expressed a willingness to give Russia everything that Russia wants before the negotiation, while not actually asking for anything that benefits the US or forces Russia to sacrifice. A weakened NATO, end of sanctions for the Crimean actions, reversal back of Obama's diplomat ban, all of these things have been largely offered to Russia, with nothing asked for in return except for the vague suggestion of a 'nuclear deal'. And honestly it's hard to see how a nuclear deal benefits the US, nor how it forces a sacrifice on the part of Russia. Russia, being geographically close to its enemies, probably benefits more from a nuclear-arms-free world (or even Europe) than America does, as America needs the threat of long-range annihilation. Russia just rolls the tanks into neighbouring countries overnight.
Compare that with Reagan and Gorbachev leading up the the Reykjavik Summit in the 80s. Reagan sought to include numerous human rights issues in the discussion, he sought to protect the US ambition of strategic defense (star wars) programs. Gorbachev wanted an elimination of ballistic missiles, an end to the SDI, and reduction in the overall number of warheads. There was a framework of what each side wanted, but not what each side was willing to offer. That was what negotiation was for; and nothing concrete came out of that summit, but it paved the path for future agreements.
Right now we have a whole heap of things that Trump is willing to offer, but not what Trump actually wants as it benefits the US, and neither what Putin wants nor what he offers. Russia's current human-rights abuses aren't being brought up, there's no American strategic advantage that Trump is trying to protect. There's no talk about forcing Russia to return the Crimean or to make hard limits on future Russian encroachments into other countries.
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