Journalists Read Putin's Body Language

Before President Trump and Vladimir Putin went behind closed doors for a one-on-one meeting in Alaska on Friday, the two leaders posed for photographers. Journalists shouted questions, but the two leaders didn't field any, and journalists were assessing:

• Putin "looked visibly uncomfortable as reporters shouted questions ahead of the talks, including questions about civilian deaths in Ukraine," writes Francesca Ebel at the Washington Post. "Putin frowned, shrugged and made faces before shouting back at the media." Ebel suspects it's because, back home in Moscow, all of Putin's press conferences are "highly choreographed," with screened questions.

• At the BBC, Liza Fokht makes a similar point. "This is the first time in a long while that the Russian president has found himself in a room with so many independent journalists not controlled by the Kremlin," writes Fokht. The Russian press pool that travels with Putin doesn't ask uncomfortable questions such as those shouted on Friday: "When will you stop killing civilians?" and "Why should Trump trust your words?"
• It was a contrast to a bit earlier when Putin exited his plane to greet Trump on the airport tarmac. The Russian president "looked happy, and genuinely enthused," writes David E. Sanger in the New York Times. And no wonder: "After three years of diplomatic isolation, sanctions and the issuance of an arrest warrant seeking him on war crimes charges, he had just landed on the territory of perhaps the most powerful nation on earth" to a warm greeting. "It was exactly the visual image that Putin had sought," writes Sanger, "and it explains why he eagerly accepted the idea of holding this meeting in Alaska. Even if the session itself makes little or no progress, Putin is back in the company of superpower interlocutors."