Since Donald Trump has been elected, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin has expressed on several occasions his admiration towards the new US President.
One might ask why a brilliant ancient agent of the ruthless Soviet intelligence agency, KGB such as Putin would be interested in an impulsive narcissistic person such as Trump.
The old school spy knows for sure that the most interesting feature in Donald Trump is definitely his entourage, the counseling team that used the world crisis and the weakness of President Obama and his Foreign Minister in that regard as a brand name. Furthermore, the rise of poverty and spread of Islamophobia, Wikileaks’s role against Hillary Clinton all were in Trump’s benefit.
On so many occasions, Trump a supporter of the Brexit, expressed that, if elected, he would pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
He also attacked the Trans-Pacific Treaty (TPP) and said that he will withdraw the United States from the agreement if he became the president. Stating that
“The TPP would be a fatal blow to the manufacturing industry in the US”.
But what caught mostly the attention of Mr Putin is that Trump on several occasions expressed that if elected, he would stop the ongoing negotiations with the EU and will renegotiate or leave the World Trade organization. Since according to Mr. Trump, these trade agreements are simply a disaster that are causing relocations, closure of factories leading to unemployment and spreading poverty all over the world.
These promises that were, actually, well presented in Trump speeches played in his favor in his election and earned him the respect and the attention of Putin.
Both men are hardcore leaders that have clear and active strategies. They both know that the riddance of ISIS will be cheered internally and on an international level.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this alliance would make Washington accept the annexing of Crimea by Moscow or at least not make a big deal out of it.
Also note that most of Trump’s advisers are Christian conservatives like Walid Phares, who was a major player in the Lebanese Forces, one of the Christian militias that fought in Lebanon’s brutal 15-year civil war and the Evangelical James Dobson, not forgetting the famous televangelist and preacher, Paula White. These Christians like Trump are advocating for the Christians cause in the Middle East, the fate of these persecuted minorities concern them because they come after all from the region from where Christianity was born.
Nevertheless, the new US president knows that his country no longer has the means of an all-out interventionist policy, that’s why his war with ISIS will be more strategic and will count on Russian forces on the ground.
Trump did not promote in his speeches a vocation nor a will to guarantee peace at any
price. He was clear when he said: “There will be no guarantee of automatic State protection to the NATO member countries”. The statement alarmed many NATO members in Eastern Europe fearing from Russian aggression.
Trump also expressed that if elected he might halt purchases of oil from Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies unless they commit ground troop to fight ISIS or “substantially reimburse” the United States to contribute financially for their protection.
It is now clear that with Trump there will be a new era that will define a new relation with Russia but also with the European Union, the middle East countries etc. Only time will reveal the nature and the consequences of this major US policy change and its impact all over the world.
Christiane Waked
Risk Analyst. Former Press Attaché of the French Embassy to the UAE (2010-2015) also worked as linguist and analyst in the French Interior Ministry (2005-2008)
