Putin must face hard questions

The US Justice Department’s indictment of 12 senior Russian military intelligence officers over attempts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election has raised the stakes ahead of today’s Helsinki summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

As Mr Trump points out, the extensive computer hacking and other dirty tricks aimed at disrupting Hillary Clinton’s campaign occurred when Barack Obama was in the White House. He asks, legitimately, why Mr Obama, after being told of the Russians’ activities by the FBI, did nothing. But Mr Trump should be forceful in demanding answers from Mr Putin over what was an outrageous attempt to undermine the US’s democratic electoral process.

In naming the Russian GRU military intelligence officers involved, the indictment details a “large-scale (Russian) cyber operation” that targeted 300 officials involved in Mrs Clinton’s campaign. This was aimed at stealing emails and then releasing them strategically to maximise the damage.

While the indictment says the Russian actions were aimed at improving Mr Trump’s chances of winning, it includes “no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the (Trump) campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking offences affected the election result”. That does not absolve Mr Trump, as US President and leader of the free world, from talking toughly about this and other egregious Kremlin behaviour. He has long taken a benign view of Russia and wants better relations with Mr Putin. But he would be betraying US interests if he did not take up issues such as the Russian dirty tricks, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and subversion in eastern Ukraine and the Baltic states, its involvement in shooting down Malaysian airliner MH17, and the use of the Novichok nerve agent against former GRU spy Sergei Skripal.

Before he left the US for Europe, Mr Trump said he expected his encounter with Mr Putin to be the “easiest” of his meetings. If that proves to be the case after the Justice Department’s indictment, it would be a serious mistake.

Mr Trump never tires of deriding former FBI chief Robert Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt”. But the details in the indictment show Mr Trump must be unrelenting in seeking answers from Mr Putin. As Senator John McCain said, Mr Trump must confront Mr Putin from a position of strength and leave him in no doubt there will a heavy price to pay if he continues his aggression against democracies around the world.