Moscow shrugs off Trump's irritation with Putin

[ad_1] Any evaluation of Donald Trump's present considering on Russia dangers getting outdated in a short time.

Learn an excessive amount of into a person tweet, submit or off-the-cuff remark by the US president, and the hazard is that your conclusions might be contradicted by tomorrow's tweet, submit or off-the-cuff remark.

Imagine me. I have been there.

As right now's version of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper put it: "The US president blows cold and warm…he modifies his thoughts on key points as simply as he modifies footwear."

Just lately, although, in terms of Russia, the White Home does seem to have been blowing extra chilly than sizzling, which explains the headline in right now's version of Moskovsky Komsomolets: "The Russian-American Chill."

Following Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's most up-to-date phone dialog on 3 July – their sixth this yr – President Trump revealed that the 2 leaders "did not make any progress" in direction of ending the conflict in Ukraine.

"I am not blissful about that," he added.

4 days later, President Trump threatened to impose a ten % tariff on any nation aligned with the BRICS, the group of countries that features Russia.

On Tuesday, his frustration boiled over with a few of his strongest language to date: "We get lots of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you wish to know the reality," President Trump mentioned at a cupboard assembly.

"He is very good on a regular basis, but it surely seems to be meaningless."

Immediately I requested for the Kremlin's response.

"We're fairly calm about this," Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed me on a Kremlin convention name for journalists.

"Trump's approach of speaking is usually fairly harsh…we plan to proceed our dialogue with Washington to fix our damaged bilateral relations…we hope that Trump and his staff will proceed their efforts to get the peace course of again to the realm of diplomacy."

The Kremlin was making an attempt, a minimum of, to sound diplomatic.

The Russian press? It wasn't even making an attempt.

In Komsomolskaya Pravda, a political pundit accused Donald Trump of "an absence of geopolitical achievements".

The tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote about President Trump's "mercurial temperament, his propensity for sudden moods and chaotic modifications of route".

This week's version of Arguments and Information mocked Donald Trump over Elon Musk's new America Get together.

"Now each time the US president says 'Make America Nice Once more' he'll be inadvertently selling Musk's get together," the paper wrote.

This can be a sea-change from the beforehand constructive protection in Russia of the Trump administration. Again in March, a political scientist informed Izvestia that "America now has extra in frequent with Russia than Washington does with Brussels or Kyiv".

In Might, the enterprise every day Kommersant declared: "Donald Trump's stance could not be extra advantageous to Moscow.

"He refused to strengthen sanctions towards Russia and confirmed his dedication to develop large-scale commerce with Russia."

The optimism was comprehensible. Earlier this yr, the White Home was publicly criticising President Zelensky (not President Putin) and exerting strain on Kyiv (not Moscow).

The US and Russia had launched bilateral talks to spice up their relations.

What's extra, President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff was a frequent customer to Russia for talks with President Putin. At one in every of their conferences the Kremlin chief gave him a gift to take again for Trump: a portrait of the US president.

It appeared as if Moscow and Washington had been destined to forge a brand new relationship.

Nevertheless it's been greater than two months since Witkoff's final go to. And, in June, Russia introduced that the US had cancelled the subsequent spherical of talks between the 2 nations aimed toward restoring the operations of diplomatic missions.

In the meantime, President Trump has, it appears, been rising more and more pissed off by Russia's refusal to comply with a complete ceasefire in Ukraine.

"The Kremlin believes that Trump provides Russia too little and, due to this fact, the continuation of a 'good quarrel' is best than a 'dangerous peace' from the perspective of Russia's long-term nationwide pursuits," wrote Moskovsky Komsomolets right now.

In different phrases, on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin needs greater than Trump has been ready to supply.

Extra by way of territory, extra by way of concessions from Kyiv on the longer term measurement of Ukraine's military, extra by way of slicing again Western arms provides to Kyiv.

And, to borrow a Trumpian expression, Vladimir Putin clearly believes that "he holds the playing cards" proper now and may maintain out for a greater deal.

Is he proper? Or is Moscow miscalculating?

A lot will rely upon what President Trump does subsequent: on the size of future US army help to Ukraine, and on whether or not the White Home decides to strengthen sanctions towards Russia.