World Leaders Are in New York for UNGA, But Not Putin

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For all the headlines about Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, the president of Iran, being in New York at the same time for the UN General Assembly. Actually, Xi Jinping is in Washington, but he's another world leader in the country right now. The one name missing, but whose presence nevertheless hangs over these proceedings, is Vladimir Putin, right? It's maybe not so surprising that the Russian leader isn't here. Putin hasn't attended the General Assembly in person since 2015, and Russia is represented this year by their foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. But Putin's absence is still notable, given that the war in Ukraine remains one of the major issues being discussed at the General Assembly. Zelensky is there, and because the Trump administration says it is trying to broker an end to that war, remember when Trump, during the 2024 campaign, said he could basically settle it in a day?

How many days has it been?

As I said, Zelensky is there. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he addressed the General Assembly yesterday, calling for continued economic pressure on Russia, and arguing that cutting off Russia's revenues is necessary to stop the war. That speech came a day after Zelensky met with President Trump in New York to discuss possible de-escalation measures. Well, with us now is David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief for Mother Jones. He's also the author of a new book called How Russia Won, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America.

The book looks at Russia's efforts to influence American politics over the past decade, and at the ways Trump has responded to, or according to Corn, often not responded to, those efforts. So we're going to talk about what Putin's absence from the UN General Assembly means, the latest developments in Russia's war in Ukraine, and the relationship between Trump and Putin, and what it means to Americans. I'll be curious to see what David thinks of Trump's very deferential welcome of Xi Jinping to Washington today in the context of this. And we'll get into what Corn sees as the continuing Russian effort to influence American politics ahead of the 2026 midterms. Of course, we've been having that conversation for a decade. David, thanks so much for joining us. Welcome back to WNYC.

David Corn (2:35)

Great to be back with you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer (2:38)

Let's start on the news. Putin isn't at the UN General Assembly, and as I mentioned, hasn't attended in person since 2015

So is it at all surprising that he's absent again this year too? And does it matter?

David Corn (2:52)

I don't think it's surprising at all. You know, he is a pariah on the world stage. He's been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes related to the kidnapping of supposedly thousands of Ukrainian children as part of this war. He's been targeting civilian sites. This is the first major land war, well, the biggest major land war in Europe since World War II. So he's not welcomed by a large part of the global community. And were he to come, there would likely be protest and other events that would be inconvenient for him. So it's not surprising that he is not there.

The last time he got a big welcome was actually from Trump.

When he came to Alaska a year ago, and Trump, though he was ostracized everywhere else in the West, welcomed him with open arms and celebrated him, gave him military honors, and claimed this meeting would lead to a resolution of the war in Ukraine. Of course, it didn't. The only thing it did was to legitimize Putin and give him a propaganda victory so he could go back to Russia and say, Look, I'm on the stage with the American president. The rest of the world has not branded me a complete pariah. And it reminds me that that meeting reminds me of what's happening this morning with Xi Jinping in that there's a red carpet, there's this warm embrace, and of course American presidents should meet with foreign leaders and try to resolve wars and other possible conflicts and disputes, and possible wars. There's nothing wrong with that. But Xi Jinping is still the leader of a dictatorial regime with tremendous human rights violations and hasn't created a war like Putin has. But Trump seems to have this tremendous affinity for strongman authoritarians, like maybe perhaps he wants to be in terms of emulating them. And I'll close by saying that while Putin is not at the UN during this General Assembly, just the other day, Trump invited him to attend the G20 meeting which the US is hosting in Florida in December.

He hasn't attended any of those meetings since the invasion of Ukraine. And has been, I think, actually since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the G20 has said, if you don't play by the rules, we're not going to allow you to attend these international fora. And yet, here comes Trump, and he's able to do that because the host has certain privileges hosting the G20 and saying, come on down, we will welcome you yet again into the international community, even though you may still be bombing civilians and kidnapping children in Ukraine.