How can we negotiate with a pathological liar like Putin?

telegraph.co.uk ^ | April 15, 2014 | Con Coughlin

[Tailgunner Joe]

That Mr Putin has difficulties with the truth is already apparent from the transparent lies he told us during the Crimean crisis. Who can forget that stage-managed press conference with a group of carefully-vetted Russian journalists back in March at which Mr Putin said in all seriousness that there were no Russian troops active in Crimea, when the province was in fact already overrun with Spetsnaz Russian forces orchestrating Moscow's annexation of the territory?

Now the Russian president is at it again, this time trying to persuade a sceptical President Obama that there are no Russian soldiers or spiesinvolved in stirring up trouble in eastern Ukraine, when all the evidence points to the contrary – including the arrest by the Ukrainian authorities of dozens of Russian military officers who have been caught red-handed trying to incite violence.As a former senior officer in the KGB, telling barefaced lies must now be ingrained in Mr Putin's DNA.

But for the West, which is desperately trying to avoid an open confrontation with Moscow over the crisis, this presents enormous difficulties.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Same way we negotiate with a pathological liar like Obama.

[American Constitutionalist]

Call him on his BS every time.... liars hate that.

[Tupelo]

re: How can we negotiate with a pathological liar like Putin?

Maybe a better question would be, how can anyone negotiate with a pathological liar like Obama?

[FatherofFive]

That Mr Putin 0bama has difficulties with the truth is already apparent from the transparent lies he told us

Power corrupts.

[Tailgunner Joe]

What’s it like to admire a genocidal mass murderer?

[fwdude]

Why is it our responsibility to deal with Putin at all, when we have our own pathology liar to deal with?

[ScottinVA]

How do you trust an alliance with a pathological liar like Obama?

[Jim Robinson]

More importantly, how do we deal with a pathological liar like Obama?

[American Constitutionalist]

George Washington was very aware of that, therefore the reason he was called the reluctant leader.
He would have never been President of the USA if it wasn't for his sense of duty to his country.

[Tucker39]

Putin and I Obunga singing to one another, a paraphrase of Kenny Rogers’ number “Islands in the Stream,” “....from one liar to another, uh-huh....” FYI

[skinkinthegrass]

..both President Putin AND pResident 0'Muslim; are BOTH pathological liars...
why just ask about Putin? ..both are Marxist Dictators.

[kenmcg]

Quite a headline. LOL! The most notorious liar, bar none, is Barack Hussein Obama!

[cripplecreek]

Yup its currently a zero sum game.

[Luke21]

“What’s it like to admire a genocidal mass murderer?”

Big on hyperbole are we?

[DannyTN]

I was thinking we send our own pathological liar (Obama) to negotiate with him.

Then again on second thought....

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

For the same reason we had to fight the cold war.

[Fightin Whitey]

I would say Putin is a cunning, ruthless liar, one who knowingly deceives to further his own ends.

Obama is a pathological liar who really recognizes no absolute truth at all, and simply adopts and spouts whatever language seems best to suit his needs of the moment.

[Always A Marine]

Let’s not get suckered into Brussels’ new Cold War with Russia. The roles have been reversed since the Soviet Union collapsed, and it is NATO now on the march eastward. The next and greatest strongman will rise from the EU, and the once-sovereign nations of Europe will be powerless to prevent his rise.