DW Interviews Nick Bouchet about Trump-Putin Dossier

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (Russian) interviewed Non-Resident GMF Fellow Nicolas Bouchet in the wake of allegations surrounding compromising material of President-elect Donald Trump.

Bouchet says:

"Leaving aside the latest allegations about kompromat or the Russian interference in the election, questions about Trump's business dealings with Russia over a long time are going to keep coming gradually and could seriously hurt his presidency as a whole, not just his policy towards Russia." 

"It's hard to say if Trump actually believes what he says about having a good relationship with Putin and the advantages of that. But if he does, then this is extremely naive and he will quickly find out that this will have no bearing on what Russia does. And if Trump actually believes this, it also gives a lot of leverage to the Russians - and they know this and will use it to their advantage." 

"It is too early to say what the policy towards Russia will be. No doubt Trump will try a rapprochement, but as we saw in the confirmation hearing of Rex Tillerson, some of his senior appointees and senior Republicans in Congress clearly will still have a typically hawkish or sceptical view of Russia. This can put a brake of what Trump will attempt." 

This video is in Russian.