For Russia, Trump is creating more problems than he solves
MOSCOW (AP) — Having Donald Trump in the White House is looking increasingly like a liability for the Kremlin, rather than an asset. But don’t expect President Vladimir Putin to say that out loud.
Russia’s official assessment of Trump’s highstakes summit with Putin is carefully upbeat. In his first public comment on it, Putin on Thursday declared it “successful.”
That stands in sharp contrast to the rain of criticism the U.S. president has faced at home. And as the days pass and Trump’s comments about Monday’s summit become more and more contradictory, Moscow appears to be quietly losing hope for a thaw in Russian-U.S. ties under Trump. Putin doesn’t blame Trump for that. He blames Trump’s opponents.
“Certain forces are trying to disavow the results of the meeting in Helsinki,” and hamper progress on what they discussed, such as limiting their nuclear arsenals or ending the war in Syria, Putin said.
In a meeting at the Foreign Ministry with Russia’s ambassadors to other countries, Putin warned them to “take to this into account” in dealing with the U.S.
The U.S.-Russia relationship is “in some ways worse than during the Cold War,” Putin said, “It’s naive to think that the problems would be solved in a few hours.” The Helsinki summit allowed them to start on “the path to positive change,” he said, but added that he was cautious about the longer term.
“We will see how things develop further,” Putin said, evoking those in the U.S. trying to prevent any improvement in relations and “putting narrow party interests above the national interest.”
The lively debate in Washington is unthinkable in Russia, where Putin has never faced real political opposition and leads a country that has never had a democratic transition of power. While he and Trump seem to be cut from the same cloth, they come from very different worlds.
In public, Russian officials have been consistent in their praise of the summit and criticism of Trump’s opponents, while also exercising caution about taking aim at Trump himself.
Behind the scenes, however, some members of the political and business elite have a different assessment.
“Trump’s behavior was a total disaster for long-term prospects of the normalization of the U.S.-Russia relationship,” said Alexander Gabuev of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Trump has come under widespread domestic criticism about the meeting with Putin both from Democratic opponents and some Republicans. He has made contradictory statements over whether he believes Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.
“He’s made things much worse,” Gabuev said.
Trump tweeted Thursday that his critics in the media “are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin.”