Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki

US President Donald Trump is meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin for a highly-anticipated summit in Helsinki, Finlad on Monday. Relations between their two countries are at lows not seen since the Cold War, so the pair will have their work cut out to bring anything positive out of the meeting.

Trump reached out to shake Putin's hand, before the media were ushered out. The two men were to meet alone apart from interpreters before a working lunch with aides. Trump said they would talk about a range of subjects, listing trade, the military, nuclear weapons and China.

But, at least in his public remarks at the outset, he mentioned none of the issues that have lately brought US-Russian relations to the lowest point since the Cold War: Moscow's annexation of territory from Ukraine, its support for Syria's Bashar al-Assad, as well as Western accusations that it poisoned a spy in England and meddled in elections.

This historical fact is as important to the Poles and their national memory, as it is painful to today's Russian authorities (political commentators close to Kremlin like to interpret this fact as the USSR saving Poland from Nazi invasion). In other words, Trump's speech in Poland was supposed to demonstrate that despite all speculation, the US would continue to back its European allies and defend them from Russian aggression.

In this sense, Putin's showing up at the G20 and meeting Trump produced the same discomforting feeling as when the ex-lover of the bride shows up to her wedding. And this uncomfortable sentiment only increased as the meeting went on. In the beginning, their meeting was supposed to last only a half-hour, but it stretched to two, and even Melania Trump was not able to put an end to it.

After the encounter, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described it as "clear positive chemistry". Indeed Putin does know all about chemistry (you can ask Syrian civilians and the relatives of Alexander Litvinenko about that), but Trump could not have continued the bromance, even if he wanted to, for the risk of facing more criticism at home