An analysis of Donald Trump’s current views on Russia risks becoming very quickly obsolete.
Read individual tweets, posts, or off-cuff comments by the President of the United States. The danger is that tomorrow’s tweet, post, or off-cuff comments will contradict the conclusion.
Trust me. I was there.
As today’s edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said, “The President of the United States is hot and cold… He changes his mind to an important issue as easily as changing shoes.”
However, recently, when it comes to Russia, the White House appears to have been blowing colder than hot. This explains the headline of Moskovsky Komsomolet’s today’s edition of “The Coldness of Russian Americans.”
Following the latest telephone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, July 3 – the sixth of this year – President Trump revealed that the two leaders “made no progress” to end the war in Ukraine.
“I’m not happy about it,” he added.
Four days later, President Trump threatened to impose 10% tariffs on countries along the BRICS, a group of countries including Russia.
On Tuesday, his complaints were boiled down in some of his strongest languages to date. “If we want to know the truth, we’re throwing a lot of bullshit on Putin,” Trump told the cabinet meeting.
“He’s always so lovely, but it turns out to be pointless.”
Today I asked for a Kremlin response.
“We’re pretty calm about this,” Vladimir Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told me during a Kremlin conference call for journalists.
“Trump’s conversations are generally very strict. We intend to continue our dialogue with Washington to repair broken bilateral relations. We hope that Trump and his team will continue their efforts to bring the peace process back into the realm of diplomacy.”
The Kremlin was trying to at least make it sound diplomatic.
Russian media? I didn’t even try it.
In Komsomolskaya Pravda, political commentators accused Donald Trump of “a lack of geopolitical achievements.”
Tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolet wrote about President Trump’s “mercury temperament, sudden mood trends, and a chaotic change in direction.”
This week’s version of discussion and facts made a laugh at Donald Trump over Elon Musk’s new American party.
“Now every time the US president says, ‘m going to make America great again,’ he will accidentally promote the mask party,” the paper writes.
This is a sea change from the Trump administration’s previously positive reporting in Russia. In March, political scientists told Izvestia that “USA is now more common to Russia than Washington would be Brussels or Kiev.”
In May, Business Daily Commercial Sant declared:
“He refused to tighten sanctions on Russia and confirmed his determination to develop large-scale trade with Russia.”
Optimism was understandable. Earlier this year, the White House publicly criticized President Zelensky (not Putin) and put pressure on Kiev (not Moscow).
The US and Russia have launched bilateral talks to boost their relationship.
Additionally, President Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkov, frequently visited Russia for meetings with President Putin. At one of their meetings, the Kremlin leader gave him a present to retrieve for Trump: a portrait of the President of the United States.
It seemed that Moscow and Washington were destined to develop a new relationship.
However, it has been more than two months since Witkov’s last visit. And in June, Russia announced that the US had cancelled its next talks between the two countries aimed at restoring operations of its diplomatic mission.
Meanwhile, President Trump appears to be increasingly unhappy with Russia’s refusal to agree to a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine.
“The Kremlin believes Trump is too little, so the continuation of “good quar” from the perspective of Russia’s long-term national interests is better than “bad peace,” writes Moskovsky Komsomolet.
In other words, in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin wants more than Trump is ready to offer.
On the territory side, more in terms of reducing Western arms supply to Kiev, in terms of concessions from Kiev on the future size of the Ukrainian army.
And to borrow the Trump expression, Vladimir Putin clearly believes that “he holds the card” and can withstand for a better deal.
Is he right? Or is Moscow miscalculation?
Much depends on what President Trump does next. It depends on the size of future US aid to Ukraine and whether the White House has decided to tighten sanctions against Russia.
But keep my warning.
And that vivid image of Komsomolskaya Pravda, who changed Donald Trump’s shoes.
Just a week ago, Russian commentators were celebrating the US government’s decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine.
Therefore, follow carefully. Not just what Donald Trump is saying in Russia and Ukraine, but the actions he takes.
