Interesting lineup of Team Russia at expanded meeting with Team U.S. #HelsinkiSummit 1/
It's Putin's spokesman Dmitri Peskov, Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, best MFA interpreter Alexey Sadykov, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Minister Sergey Lavrov Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov, head of MFA North America department Georgy Borisenko (note taker)
Nearly everyone on the list is a usual suspect and matching to their U.S. counterpart with an exception for Peskov. Kelly's direct counterpart should be Anton Vaino, Putin's chief of staff, Peskov besides being President's spokesperson is technically his deputy 3/
Looks like Peskov, a Turkey hand and a former diplomat, has a bigger foreign policy role than his normal function would suggest. He sits in most of Putin's meetings with foreign leaders, and was rumored to be among candidates to succeed Lavrov at the MFA. 4/
Fun fact: in Steele's dossier Peskov is named as a Kremlin official in charge of kompromat on Trump. I hugely doubt it: if the tape exists, it's very hard to imagine that Peskov, one of the few members of Putin's inner circle with no KGB background would be in charge of it 5/
Fiona Hill's counterpart is MFA's Borisenko. Head of MFA area department as a note taker in a summit is a standard Russian practice. Borisenko is not influential on policy towards the US, and one has to guess how influential is Hill on Russia policy of this White House 6/6
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