Vladimir Putin

• Hillary Clinton advised the Obama Administration to deny credibility to Vladimir Putin, refusing to engage in high-level political engagement with him, as an effective way to constrain the growth of Putin's power. “In one of her last acts as secretary of state in early 2013, Hillary Clinton wrote a confidential memo to the White House on how to handle Vladimir Putin, the aggressive and newly reinstalled Russian president. Her bluntly worded advice: Snub him. ‘Don't appear too eager to work together,’ Clinton urged President Obama, according to her recollection of the note in her 2014 memoir. ‘Don't flatter Putin with high-level attention. Decline his invitation for a presidential summit.’ It was harsh advice coming from the administration's top diplomat, and Obama would ignore key parts of it. But the memo succinctly captured a personal view about Putin on the part of the future Democratic presidential nominee: a deep skepticism, informed by bitter experience, that will be likely to define U.S.-Russian relations if Clinton is elected. Her lasting conclusion, as she would acknowledge, was that ‘strength and resolve were the only language Putin would understand.’” (Washington Post, November 6, 2016)