Following a recent "Putin’s fine" assessment of the Russian president by Donald Trump ahead of their meeting on July 16, Freedom House compiled a small sampling of reasons to think otherwise.
"Putin dispatched Russian special forces to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in February 2014, after protesters in Kyiv forced the downfall of corrupt Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin client. After seizing control of the region by force, occupation authorities rigged a referendum to facilitate formal annexation by Russia, which the international community has refused to recognize," the report by Freedom House reads.
Here is a small sampling of reasons why Russia's Vladimir Putin is not friendship material. https://t.co/9XC6Cq45KD
— Freedom House (@freedomhouse) July 12, 2018
On Thursday, Trump told a press conference in Brussels Russian President Vladimir Putin is not an “enemy” but rather a “competitor,” according to Time.
“Somebody was saying, ‘Is he an enemy?’ He’s not my enemy. Is he a friend? No, I don’t know him well enough. But the couple of times that I’ve gotten to meet him, we got along very well … but ultimately, he’s a competitor. He’s representing Russia. I’m representing the United States. It’s not a question of friend or enemy.”