ON THE RECORD

Russia Likely Has Detailed Notes From Trump-Putin Conversations: WaPo

Soviet interpreters take “nearly verbatim” notes of leaders’ conversations.

The United States has no detailed record of the conversations between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Trump has reportedly taken possession of his interpreter’s notes. However, Russia likely has an extremely detailed record of the two leaders’ interactions, The Washington Post reports. Interpreters working for Soviet leaders were trained to take “nearly verbatim” notes, according to Svetlana Savranskaya, the director of Russia programs at the National Security Archive at George Washington University. In fact, declassified Soviet records of Cold War talks are often more detailed than official American notes on the same conversations. Moscow, then, may well possess a far more detailed record of Putin’s talks with Trump than American officials have. “The irony might be that in some years, historians will have the Russian record but not the American—and then we will learn something incredibly interesting just from the one side,” Savranskaya said.

HIDING SOMETHING?

Trump Hid Details of Time With Putin From Officials: Report

Audrey McNamara