No Congratulations for Trump: Putin’s Silent Rebuke 

 United States: After Donald Trump won the election, many world leaders congratulated him. But Russian President Vladimir Putin stayed silent. His spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said that Putin wasn’t planning to call Trump because the United States is not friendly to Russia and supports Ukraine in its fight against Russia. 

The relations between the Russia and the United States he said are currently at an all-time low. They could hardly be worse off.  

Putin’s major power play—this is the diplomatic version of a slap in one’s face—comes after a campaign in which Trump has been deferential to the Russian strongman and has indicated he will consent to end the war rapidly on what is expected to be terms acceptable to Moscow. 

As reported by the POLITICO, not only did the jilting of Trump give Putin a reason to once again say ‘I told you so’ to Washington on a number of occasions. It also provides an insight into how the Kremlin is likely to proceed in its efforts to extract as much out of the Republican president-elect’s second term as possible.  

Thus, eight years ago, in 2016 people in Moscow greeted Trump’s victory as winning the White House at the level of honeymoon. More recently, however, the note sounded by Russian senior officials and state media is closer to that of a jealous lover who constantly recalls a partner’s betrayal — probably with a view towards getting something in exchange in the future.  

“Trump’s maiden presidency came to an end with a record volume of anti-Russian sanctions, and no real dialogue,” Leonid Slutsky, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, said in a commentary to TASS on Wednesday. He made sure to add: “And through no fault of ours” are words that I always have hated to read but often find myself using them.  

The Kremlin has been effectively telling Trump here that to get along it will require a lot more than nice words and loud boasts. Trump’s words must be followed by actions, concrete actions, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a Wednesday morning broadcast of the state television channel Rossiya-24.  

Russian’s influential circle of military bloggers joined advocated more caution with their tones. “To be sure, nothing will improve with Trump’s victory,” Alexander Kots, a defence blogger, posted on Telegram. That boy is clever and capricious.