Obama's Eurotrip Aimed at Tripping Up Trump Before He Even Steps Into Office

On Friday, outgoing President Obama held his final meeting with many EU leaders, urging them to prepare for the transfer of power to President-elect Donald Trump. Commenting on the trip's significance, Russian observers said that it amounts to a signal to the incoming US Congress, State Department and the Pentagon to try and reign in Trump.

In his meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Obama discussed a number of foreign policy issues of concern to the Transatlantic alliance, including Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, and the fight against Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) terrorism.

Speaking to media after the meeting, Chancellor Merkel said that leaders focused a lot of their discussion on instability in the Middle East and North Africa, including the resulting migrant crisis which struck Europe in the last two years. The leaders also discussed the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, including the frozen civil war in the Donbass region. They did not discuss the introduction of new sanctions against Russia, either over Ukraine or Syria, Merkel explained, but apparently did agree to keep existing sanctions in place.

A statement released following the meeting by the White House also said that the leaders had "affirmed the importance of continued cooperation through multilateral institutions, including NATO."

Russian commentators say that Obama's final European tour was the outgoing administration's final attempt to provide European leaders with assurances about the continuity of US foreign policy, including as far as relations with Moscow are concerned, and to try and box-in President-elect Trump once he takes office in January.

Vadim Trukhachev, a senior lecturer in international politics at the Russian State University for the Humanities, said that he believes the decisions taken regarding Russia, including efforts to extend sanctions and other restrictions, were meant as a "signal" to America's political elite.

In its essence, the expert noted, this signal was that "in the event of 'improper' behavior by Trump, the Congress, the State Department and the Pentagon are to 'correct' him." Secondly, "it is also an attempt to give a signal to Russia not to expect an easy life under any US president."

Ultimately, Trukhachev stressed, "Obama is trying to make sure that Trump has to deal with a European Union unified in its anti-Russian impulses."

For his part, Vladimir Kornilov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Eurasian Studies, suggested that Obama's trip had long been planned as a 'farewell tour', "a triumphant march of the Democratic Party, who expected a solid victory in elections, and a win in Mosul on a silver platter."

In reality, the analyst said, the tour "turned out to be less triumphant. The topic of sanctions, of course, did not seem as sharp only a week ago. But now Europe's leaders are trying to figure out what to do. And I'm afraid Obama himself doesn't have an answer."

At the same time, Kornilov noted that he believes even President-elect Trump doesn't know exactly how to approach Russia and the sanctions issue, including in the Ukrainian crisis and the Crimean question. During the campaign, Trump had one set of foreign policy advisors, but now, the list of candidates for Secretary of State is composed entirely of anti-Russian hawks "who are not going to restore good relations with Moscow," the analyst explained.

Therefore, the expert stressed that while Russia can and must do everything in its power to ensure improved relations with the new administration, it should also prepare for a scenario where Trump is tamed by the establishment of his party, and follows the advice of his new (anti-Russian) foreign policy advisors.