The following is taken from an Aug. 13 comment posted to the Russian Publico.ru web-portal by Ivan Timofeev, program director of the Valdai Club, which represents the thinking in some influential circles inside Russia. Under the headline “Here’s Why Russia Doesn’t Care about Trump,” Timofeev wrote:
“Former U.S. President Donald Trump has already stated on several occasions that he could improve relations with Russia and solve the Ukrainian crisis, if he returns to the White House. He has also insisted that he would never have allowed the conflict to start. However, such statements should be seen as rhetoric and populism rather than Trump’s actual policy agenda.
“The tycoon-turned-politician will not be able to do what he claims, and for many reasons. There is the example of his first term, when he made such statements but failed to improve relations with Moscow. On the one hand, he was severely handicapped by the so-called `Russiagate’ hoax election scandal and, on the other, U.S.-Russia relations were already in a rut, and getting worse and worse.
“At the same time, the situation was much more favorable during Trump’s first term in office, especially as there were no military actions on the scale we are seeing now. Nevertheless, he wasn’t able to put the relationship back on a constructive track.
“Trump also promised to improve relations with North Korea but didn’t achieve much in this area either.
“Today the problems are much bigger, there are military operations going on. And it is completely unclear how Trump is going to improve relations.…
“First and foremost, Trump is an anti-China politician, and his presidency will be of primary concern to Beijing. Russia doesn’t care whether Trump or Harris becomes U.S. President, as the structure of its relations with Washington will not change fundamentally.”
