Donald Trump Will Be No Friend of the Kremlin
Contrary to years of "Russia! Russia! Russia!", the president-elect seems ready and far more willing than Joe Biden ever was to throttle the Russian economy.
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
January 22, 2025
Vladimir Putin’s plan to outlast Joe Biden and an exhausted West has run into an unpleasant surprise – Donald Trump is surrounding himself with pro-Ukrainian hardliners.
Trump appears more willing than Biden ever was to throttle the Russian economy, if that is what it takes to force the Kremlin to accept peace on “America First” terms.
A new mood of relief – not yet optimism – is taking hold among Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisers in Kyiv. Europe’s diplomats are starting to wonder whether a Trump 2.0 presidency might not be such a bad outcome after all, at least when it comes to dealing with Russia.
“It is now absolutely clear that Trump is not going to throw Ukraine under a bus,” said Prof Alan Riley, a regional expert at the Atlantic Council.
Trump’s advisers have persuaded him, by the odd “socratic method” that shapes policy at M…
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