Story highlights John Kirby: President Trump talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin informally is fine

But there needs to be an aide or translator present who can vouch for what was said

CNN National Security Analyst John Kirby is a retired rear admiral in the US Navy who served as a spokesman for both the state and defense departments in the Obama administration. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) On its face -- and under less suspicious circumstances -- there would be nothing wrong with President Trump having an impromptu side meeting with Vladimir Putin. Such meetings are a staple of big, global confabs like the G-20. Indeed, it is often during these more intimate discussions that real progress on contentious issues can be made.

John Kirby

But we can't afford to take anything regarding Russia at face value right now. Putin's malevolence and the Trump administration's repeated failure to come clean about their interactions with Russian officials -- including this one -- raise legitimate questions about where this most critical of bilateral relationships is heading.

So, yes, in that context, this hour-long pull-aside matters. And, yes, it warrants scrutiny. First of all, we learned about it through media reporting, specifically an interview by NPR's Audie Cornish of Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer. The White House only acknowledged it when pressed by reporters following up.

Unless they're simply brief, chance encounters, meetings of this nature -- and certainly one between the President of the United States and the President of Russia -- are typically summarized by government officials. This readout, as it is called, accomplishes two things: it serves as a public record of the President's participation in the conference, and provides a way to advance his message about whatever issues were discussed.

That there was no overt acknowledgement of the meeting, let alone a readout, suggests either that the President's staff didn't know about it (troubling all by itself) or that the White House didn't want it known (more troubling, given ongoing investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election).

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