Shaun Walker in Moscow
Wednesday 9 November 2016 23.32 AEDT Last modified on Wednesday 9 November 2016 23.42 AEDT
After an election campaign in which Russia has been openly accused of interfering in favour of Donald Trump, his surprise victory led to applause in the Russian parliament and a swift call from the president, Vladimir Putin, for a new era of “fully fledged relations” between his country and the US.
Speaking in the Kremlin, Putin congratulated Trump on his victory and said Russia was ready to work for better ties. “We understand that it will not be an easy path given the current state of degradation in the relations,” he said.
“And as I have repeatedly said, it’s not our fault that Russian-American relations are in such a poor state. But Russia wants and is ready to restore fully fledged relations with the United States.”
Earlier, Putin became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump, sending him a telegram expressing hope for an era of positive ties. Many Russian politicians welcomed the news, both because Trump has spoken of his admiration for Putin and because he represents a blow against the US “establishment”.
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Relations between the US and Russia have reached a post-cold war low over the past two years, due to differences over Syria and Ukraine.
Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, was jubilant at the result and said a Trump presidency would make it more likely the US would agree with Russia on Syria, where the two powers back different sides and Moscow has intervened decisively on behalf of the president, Bashar al-Assad.
Markov also said it would mean less American backing for “the terroristic junta in Ukraine”. He denied allegations of Russian interference in the election, but said “maybe we helped a bit with WikiLeaks.”
The Obama administration accused Russian authorities of hacking Democratic party emails that were leaked to WikiLeaks. Putin has previously dismissed as “nonsense” claims of Russian interference.
Alexei Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of Russia’s liberal Echo of Moscow radio, said that while some in the Kremlin were probably celebrating, other “more serious” people realised there were unpredictable times ahead.
“Putin doesn’t like unpredictability and Trump is the definition of unpredictability,” he said. “They celebrated Brexit and then Boris Johnson became foreign secretary and they thought, ‘Oh God, what is this?’”
Venediktov said that, for all the talk of an affinity between Trump and Putin, there might end up being little difference in the former’s approach to Syria and Ukraine and the strategy Hillary Clinton would have adopted.
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“What will be really interesting is the Baltics,” he said. “Will Trump remove troops from there?”
Trump has previously suggested his administration could be less committed to Nato and would not automatically defend a Nato country under attack, statements that have worried leaders in the three Baltic nations – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – who fear a newly assertive Russia.
On Wednesday morning, as Trump was edging ever closer to the White House, the US ambassador in Moscow held a breakfast reception at his residence. Shellshocked European diplomats and Russian liberals watched as the chances of a Clinton victory evaporated.
Evgenia Albats, the editor of the opposition New Times magazine, said: “I cannot believe it. There will be absolutely no constraints on Putin now at all. This will be a disaster.”
The ambassador, John Tefft, reminded visitors that diplomats were unable to give personal opinions on elections. He added: “Whether you’re happy or not, one of the key things here is to understand that our institutions in America will continue.”
He also spoke about the importance of a free media in providing checks and balances to government power, something that sounded hopeful rather than declarative given Trump’s attacks on the media during the campaign.
Privately, many US diplomats in the country will be wondering whether a President Trump means a total reversal on Russia policy. Tefft’s predecessor in the role, Michael McFaul, has been extremely critical of Trump’s campaign and wrote on Twitter as the results came in: “Putin intervened in our elections and succeeded. Well done!” He later deleted the tweet.
The mood of policymakers around the Russian president was one of cautious optimism.
A source close to the Kremlin said: “The political space for every US president is quite narrow because a lot of the momentum is in the mentality of military people, secret services and politicians around the president. But it is obvious that Trump, as a former businessman, will be much more pragmatic and won’t be a hostage of the mistakes previously and generously made by Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama.”
As I said above, Bernie Sanders would have won. Clinton has the majority of the popular votes though she lost the in the electoral votes. It is the defect of the US electoral system which is out of date that has made this possible. It does not reflect the majority wish of the people as it should be under a direct democracy. Also, the polls got it wrong and the social scientists should research into the reason for this. The only way Trump can win mathematically is for Trump to win all swing states which he did. This is almost an impossible probability indicating that most of the polls ( or at least many of them are erroneous ). The people have spoken or in fact the system has taken its course. US voters must accept the result under a democracy. Having said that winning the presidency does not change the fact that Trump is an immoral personal and egocentric. This makes it very dangerous for the world for him to be US president. Of course, he may not actually do the things he promised. We have to wait and see ( I expect we will see that pretty soon ). He only promised anything to get elected as all politicians do.
ReplyDeleteA Trump administration will not only spell dIsaster for USA his isolationism ( withdrawal from world stage which once led to WWII ) and his protectionism in trade will lead to international trade wars ( he said he will declare China a currency manipulator and impose 45 percent tariff on Chinese import to US ). Another global economic depression is underway. I truly think that had Bernie Sanders been the Democratic nominee the Democratic Party could have won.
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