Any thoughts on why Putin would want Trump to pull out of the Paris agreement so soon after Russia signed on?
IIRC Putin has been switching from old coal and oil electrical generation to modern gas facilities ever since he's been in power, and will have no problems in making his commitments. If Evil Putin was actually interested in "Weakening the West", wouldn't he want Trump to sign up & then struggle to meet his new commitments?
Oh what a tangled web.
Terry
The US already signed on under Obama. Trump can reverse that decision. It's very much in Putin's interest for Trump to do so;
The Russian economy is profoundly dependent on fossil fuel exports. Even if the Russian internal economy modernizes to reduce emissions, it's still dependent on exports financially.
Russia being in or out of the Paris agreement matters little, Paris would go forward with or without Russia. Russia actually retains a seat at decision-making tables by staying in.
But the US pulling out weakens the whole global arrangement, and strong US fossil fuel consumption helps keep global prices up, even if not one shipload goes directly from Russia to the US.
If Putin really has compromising evidence on Trump (a hard drive from the fired FBI director, a tape of Trump trysting with prostitutes, whatever), this is the sort of decision on which Putin would apply pressure.
Trump is under substantial domestic pressure to stay in (even from Exxon). If Trump renounces Paris, I'd consider that an indication that Putin may really be pulling on puppet strings.