Putin is a fan of Donald Trump

Sometimes a throwaway line says a helluva lot. Vladimir Putin just about managed to have a sort of chat with Trump before or during or after the G20 banquet in Buenos Aires. The previously planned proper session between the two leaders was scrapped by Trump because of Putin's action against the Ukrainian Navy off Crimea. So it was a question of Putin engineering to bump into Trump, or perhaps the other way around. They had a brief chat about the incident involving the Ukrainian vessels and arrested crew and that was it. But afterwards, Putin was asked by reporters whether Trump had seemed "wary" about talking to him. Putin wonderfully replied: "I don't think Trump is wary of anything." He then added: "He is a man of character, a very experienced man. He is a grown up." Well well. I'm sure Trump will be delighted with that assessment. There are a quite a few of America's closest allies who might not agree with that description, although it is certainly true to say that Donald Trump is a character. But for a man who thinks burning more and more coal is a good idea, that climate change is a hoax, and that he knows more about most things than the whole US intelligence community, it's quite difficult to see why Putin thinks of him as such a grown up. There are very few people on this planet who do not believe that climate change is dangerously changing the health of the globe for our children and grandchildren. But I'm sure Robert Mueller will take Putin's remark and add it to the long list of why he believes there may have been some sort of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow in the 2016 presidential election campaign. We don't know what Mueller is going to come up with but from all the leaks and whispers it does look as if he is doing his very best to put the president at the top of his Wanted List.