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Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a joint press conference with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018.
JUSTSI NUKARI Reuters Magazine
Since Ukraine invaded three years ago, Russia has spent a significant amount of energy demonizing the United States and denigrating its leadership, economy and culture, and what it saw how Washington’s “hegemony” in the world’s world world order.
The international sanctions led by the United States caused more vitriol in Moscow, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials hitting The almost continuous series of punitive restrictions in the key sectors of the Russian economy and its eliteWhile the war continued.
But the arrival of a more friendly administration under President Donald Trump and the incipient conversations with the United States to end the conflict in Ukraine, as well as a return path from the economic and geopolitical cold, is causing a turning in U in Moscow , with the Kremlin drastically abandoning the adverse position he has occupied in recent years.
As the tensions between Trump and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the open acrimony extended on Wednesday, with Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator”, Putin broke his silence about the approach between Russia and the United States in Saudi Arabia This week later. The first conversations between officials since the beginning of 2022.
“” I qualify (the negotiations) highly, there is a result, “Putin said, adding that the meeting was” very friendly. “
“In general, as they told me, (mood) was very friendly. On the American side, there were completely different people who were open to the negotiation process without any bias, without any prejudice to what was done in the past, “He said in comments translated by NBC News.
Putin also praised Trump for showing “restriction” in the midst of what he described as “hysteria” by European leaders who are angry at not being negotiated about the future of Ukraine.
Humor music change
Mood’s music in Moscow seemed to change rapidly after Russia-United States conversations on Riyad Discussions
Russian state media responded positively to conversations and change tide in Russian and American relations, as are the senior officials in Moscow who are part of Putin’s faithful internal circle.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that conversations had focused on a “rebirth” of relations between the United States and Russia that Ukraine, saying that mood was now “commercial.”
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference after his summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland.
Chris McGrath | Getty Images News | Getty images
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed that feeling, commenting on the “very constructive” conversations that had taken place, and affirming on Wednesday that the countries “began to move away from the edge of the abyss where the administration of Biden directed our relationship”.
“For now, it is necessary to clean the legacy of the Biden administration, which did everything to destroy … the very base of the long -term association among our countries,” said Lavrov, commenting on the possibility of strategic cooperation between Russia and States Joined, The Russian state news agency Tass reported.
CNBC has requested more Kremlin comments about the change of position against Washington and is waiting for an answer.
There is no doubt that Joe Biden’s departure from the White House and Trump’s return have led Moscow to soften his rhetoric to the United States, with whom he had warm relations during the president’s first mandate from 2017 to 2021.
Russian President Vladimir Putin even pointed out his support for the tariffs Trump announced in his first weeks in office, stating that the The United States European allies “would stop at the foot of the teacher” when they face Trump’s commercial threats.
Russia will also benefit significantly from the end to a war that has put its economy in war, with Moscow greatly increasing its production of military hardware, diverting workers from other industries and key production, contributing to persistent inflationary pressures. and an increase in the price of basic goods and foods that Russian citizens have felt intensely.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, meets the workers during a visit to the Aviation Factory in the city of Ulan-UFE of East Siberia on March 14, 2023.
Vladimir Gerdo | AFP | Getty images
Economy for benefit
Moscow has often minimized the impact of Western sanctions on its main industries, particularly their oil and gas sectors, and any blow to their export income, instead of defending their ability to mitigate sanctions when reinforcing trade with other countries , like China and India.
However, a relief of restrictions and a reopening of access to old markets in the West, since part of a peace agreement would undoubtedly be a blessing for Moscow, economists say.
“The decision of the United States and Russia of ‘sitting on the foundations’ of ending the war in Ukraine marks a potentially significant inflection point after three years of conflict,” said Liam Peach, a senior economist of emerging markets of Capital Economics , in a note on Tuesday.
“Negotiations will take time and macroeconomic implications will depend on the characteristics of any agreement (but) we believe that a peace agreement could lead to higher Russian natural gas flows and more energy prices, but any impulse to the economy of Europe , out of Russia and Ukraine, of Ukraine – it is likely to be limited. “
“A peace agreement that is widely favorable for all sides would have macroeconomic benefits: it could establish the basis for a modest collection in some Russian pipe gas flows to Europe (and) the flexibility of Western sanctions against Russia, “although perhaps only in certain areas, such as Russia’s access to the United States financial system, he said in comments sent by email.
David Roche, a strategist of the quantum strategy, commented that autocratic leaders such as Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping were the best “winners” of the new antipathy of the United States towards the old allies and the warming towards Moscow. Roche and other strategists are also cynical that Russia will be inclined to renounce the war -oriented economy now that has been rooted.
“The winners are Putin and XI. They have shown how weak and decadent is democracy,” Roche said in comments sent by email.
“The withdrawal of the United States to Maga isolationism creates a great opportunity for the” axis of self -critics “(including Russia and China) replacing the United States … in terms of help, investment and political power,” he said Roche in comments sent on Wednesday.
“Putin will use the fire to reconstitute Russia’s armed forces. Once the fight stops, the horrible Russian losses of men and machines become daily additions to the armed forces. The Russian war machine is producing the entire team Of the armed forces of Germany every 6 months.
Ukraine fuming
Ukraine and his European allies have been smoked by the United States, and Russia reavenized diplomatic ties and is being advanced with conversations without their contributions.
Zelenskyy had already expressed his dismay by Kyiv, being excluded from the conversations in Saudi Arabia, but his frustration emerged fully on Wednesday when he said that Trump was being influenced by the Russian “misinformation.”
It was then that Trump replied, saying that Zelenskyy was a “dictator without elections” and had bad voting ratings despite a Opinion Survey published Wednesday By the International Institute of Sociology of kyiv that shows that 57% of Ukrainians trust their president.
Ukraine has not celebrated elections since the Zelenskyy elections in 2019, saying that it was impracticable to maintain a vote during the war and when the martial law is in its place.