FILE – In this Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during a campaign state at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in Eau Claire, Wis. In his victory speech, Trump called them America’s “forgotten men and women”, the workers from the coalfields of Appalachia to the hallowing manufacturing towns of the Rust Belt who propelled him to an improbable victory. They felt left behind by progress, laughed at by the elite, and so put their faith in the billionaire businessman with a sharp tongue and short temper. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) MOSCOW (AP) – In careful phrasing befitting the spy he once was, Vladimir Putin has made it clear he expects a great deal from President-elect Donald Trump. And, the billionaire businessman may expect a transactional relationship with Putin.
Although the Kremlin clearly detested Hillary Clinton, Putin’s public statements on Trump’s victory steered clear of gloating. Other Russians were less fastidious, suggesting that Putin in private could be delighted – and perhaps harboring unreasonable expectations.
Trump’s rise to the White House puts two men into seats of global power who are paradoxically both remarkably similar and wildly different.
Trump’s praise of the Russian president as a strong leader, his suggestion that the US could abandon its NATO commitments and his vehement complaints about allegedly biased news media all appear to parallel Putin’s view of the world.
A top Russian diplomat says Moscow had contacts with Trump’s campaign ahead of his election as president.