The relationship level between negotiating partners very often determines the success or failure of negotiations. However, emotions can also be used deliberately to deceive the negotiating partner. The following rule therefore applies: “Separate the relationship level from the factual level” or “Be conciliatory in your dealings with your negotiating partner, but tough on the matter”. The following events show an example of how Vladimir Putin uses the instrument of relationship management to deceive:
“At the G8 summit in Heiligendamm on the Baltic Sea, French President Nicolas Sarkozy severely criticized Putin in private for human rights violations in Russia, writes journalist Nicolas Hénin in the book ”La France russe, enquête sur les réseaux Poutine”. Putin asked Sarkozy if he was finished, then ran him over with broad gestures and rude words: “You have two options. Either you continue to speak in this tone and I will crush you. Or you can change your mind and I can make you king of Europe.”
The passage sounds bizarre. But Sarkozy’s successor François Hollande also describes how Putin, during the 17-hour Minsk ceasefire poker in February 2015, shouted threats to Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko to destroy his troops. […]
The Kremlin leader also masters the friendly face. George Bush junior, an evangelical, enthused after two hours with Putin: “I looked into his eyes and saw his soul.” Their conversation apparently revolved around a cross that Putin had received from his mother and that Putin had blessed in Jerusalem. Putin was straightforward and trustworthy, Bush said.
“A flawless democrat”, Gerhard Schröder was also pleased. Before his first visit to Moscow, Schröder had announced that, unlike Helmut Kohl, he would not be taking a sweat bath with his hosts. Shortly afterwards, the charming Volodya Putin took him for a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh with his wife. And Putin helped the couple to adopt two children from a St. Petersburg orphanage. According to the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets”, they bypassed a queue of 11,000 other German couples who wanted to adopt a Russian child.
The construction of the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline, Putin’s first bypass of Ukraine, was decided under Chancellor Schröder. And at the end of his term in office, he was reluctant to turn down his Russian friend’s offer to become the highly remunerated head of the supervisory board of Nord Stream AG.” NZZ, 22.3.2025 https://lnkd.in/e3CfFtt8
PUTIN PRAYED FOR DONALD TRUMP IN 20204
“When the president was shot, he went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff said of Putin. Putin “had a friendship with him and he was praying for his friend,” Witkoff [US top envoy to peace negotiations 
] explained. He added that he had relayed the sentimental story to Trump, who was “clearly touched.” 21.3.2025, Politico https://lnkd.in/ejT-KMtJ
Negotiating with Vladimir Putin: Video Advice from Five former U.S. Secretaries of State
