Vladimir Putin to the press: ‘Love quickly turns to hate’
own restriction,” Putin said. He added: “I have always said that only joint [ West-Russia] efforts can tackle terrorism,” he added. “But how such efforts can be united if we have sanctions?”
Over at the Guardian, journalist Luke Harding concluded, “It’s clear to me that getting rid of EU and US sanctions against Russia remains Moscow’s top foreign policy priority. The good news for Putin is that presidentelect Trump has pretty much indicated that his administration will dump them.”
And it is the Trump administration, Putin insisted, that must improve relations between Moscow and Washington, which are now so bad that, per the Russian presi- dent, they “can’t get any worse”. US President Barack Obama, he said, divides America. Indeed, Putin sent a Christmas letter to Trump saying as much. The missive, sent out by the Trump team and dated December 15, noted US-Russian relations are critical for international safety and security, and continued, “I hope that after you assume the position of the President of the United States of America we will be able by acting in a constructive and pragmatic manner – to take real steps to restore the framework of bilateral cooperation in different areas as well as bring our level of collaboration on the international scene to a qualitatively new level.”
Trump’s response, released in a statement on Friday, said, “A very nice letter from Vladimir Putin; his thoughts are so correct. I hope both sides are able to live up to these thoughts, and we do not have to travel an alternate path.”
Putin also agreed with Trump when speaking of charges levelled by US intelligence officials – suspicions echoed by Obama himself – that Russia (and perhaps Putin himself ) hacked into and leaked Democratic operatives’ emails so as to influence the electoral outcome, Putin said that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats had only themselves to blame. “Trump answered that in a very good way,” Putin continued. “He said, ‘How would we know that it was Russia that hacked it? Maybe it was some other country or maybe someone lying on a sofa did it.”
Even threat of nuclear war didn’t seem to put Putin off Trump. On Thursday, after boasting to his Defence Ministry that Russia “is stronger now than any potential aggressor”, Putin said Moscow must look at strengthening its nuclear forces with an eye towards penetrating “any existing and prospective missile defence systems” – like, say, the missile defence system the US built in Europe that Putin criticised yet again during his Friday presser.
Shortly thereafter, Trump tweeted that the United States “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability”. On Friday, the pajama-clad hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe clarified that Trump’s position on the matter was to “let it be an arms race”.
But Putin is unbothered by such commentary. “There is nothing new” to the comments, Putin told the press.
Perhaps, in working with each other, the American and Russian presidents would do well to remember the words with which Putin dismissed the reporter who tried to ask him about love Friday.
According to a Tweet from Shaun Walker, Moscow correspondent for the Guardian:
“Can I ask about love?” calls out a journalist.
“Love quickly turns to hate,” says Putin, turning her down.