Trump’s bromance with Russia’s Putin appears to be cooling

WASHINGTON: With his administration on the defensive over investigations into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s election, US President Donald Trump is no longer tweeting praise for his Kremlin counterpart. Less than five weeks after he took office, the chances of a spring thaw in relations between Washington and Moscow - once buoyed by an apparent “bromance” between Trump and President Vladimir Putin during the US political campaign - are looking much dimmer, US officials say.

His top foreign policy advisers have started talking tougher on Russia, and the apparent cooling of Trump’s approach follows the resignation last month of his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, a vocal advocate of warmer ties with Moscow. He was replaced by Army Lieutenant General HR McMaster, who is more hawkish on Russia and allied with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general.

In one other sign of a stiffening attitude, two officials said the administration had offered the job of top Russia adviser at the National Security Council to Russia scholar Fiona Hill, a leading Putin critic. Her books include “Mr Putin, Operative in the Kremlin”, an allusion to the Russian leader’s past as a KGB officer. It was not immediately known whether she had accepted the post.

Pressure also has come to bear from Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, long wary of his campaign overtures to Putin, and from European allies anxious over any sign that the president might prematurely ease sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea and support for proRussian rebels in Ukraine. Posing fresh obstacles to rapprochement with Russia, analysts say, is mounting evidence that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and other members of Trump’s team communicated with Russian officials during and after the presidential campaign.

The mushrooming inquiry - which is now focused on Sessions and his contacts with Moscow’s ambassador to Washington - has fueled calls for expanded investigations into allegations that Moscow sought to sway the election’s outcome. “There is so much panic in the US political establishment over Russia right now that Trump will be boxed in on what he can do,” said Matthew Rojansky, a Russia expert at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington. White House officials say there were no improper contacts, and Russia denies any meddling. —Reuters