Russian elites are delighted with Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago press conference

Russian elites are delighted with Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago press conference

During an on-air conversation last Thursday with Judge Andrew Napolitano on ‘Judging Freeedom,’ I was asked how the Kremlin and Russian elites view the announcement by Donald Trump at his Mar a Lago press conference that he plans to take possession of Greenland and is prepared to use military force or economic pressure, as necessary, to wrest the island from its legal owner, Denmark. I replied that no definitive answer is yet possible, because Russian news and commentary programming was shut down for the country’s two-week winter break that began on 31 December and will mostly return following the celebration of New Year’s according to the Gregorian calendar, 14 January as the world reckons today.

However, several Russian shows have returned to life ahead of their ‘old style’ New Year’s. Sixty Minutes was back on Friday, and the widely watched Evening with Vladimir Solovyov was again on air last night, Sunday. That show was almost entirely devoted to discussion of Trump’s Mar a Lago press conference and to the latest antics of Elon Musk operating as Trump’s attack dog against Left-leaning governments in Europe and Canada. The several panelists and the host were all delighted with Trump and confident that he will quickly drive a stake through the heart of the Biden legislative and policy legacy, leading to a 180 degree turn from hostile confrontation to live and let live in U.S. relations with Russia.

Last night’s Solovyov show took me back down memory lane. In November 2016, both before and after the U.S. presidential election, I was in Moscow. Just ahead of the election I was invited on to the Solovyov show to comment on Trump for the benefit of his Russian audience which was keen to hear from a Russian-speaking American who happened to be a Trump backer. In the break during that show, when Solovyov circulates among panelists while they take coffee, I asked him directly what he thought about Trump and he replied without a moment’s hesitation that he preferred for Hillary to win: ‘better to get the devil we know than this volatile and unpredictable Trump.’

Of course, following the election, Russian state television suppressed doubts and celebrated Trump’s victory. I joined RT host Peter Lavelle in his Cross Talk studio for a round table discussion of the good days to come.

For their part, as 2017 arrived Vladimir Solovyov and other representatives of Russia’s chattering classes were willing to give Donald the benefit of the doubt and see if he could implement the Russia-friendly policies he talked about in the electoral campaign. As we now know, from the get-go Trump did not deliver on those promises. Indeed, bilateral relations deteriorated during the entire period of his presidency.

Heading into this year’s American elections, Solovyov and other Russian commentators took the position that it would make no difference who wins because the Deep State controls American policy so that the venomous hostility to Russia that has flourished during the Biden years will continue. The main thing, they all said, was for Russia to continue down its own path, smash Ukraine and NATO, and look after its own security by armed force.

Following the election, there was no change in the skepticism with which Russian elites met the Trump victory. In the first weeks, the nomination by Trump of numerous hawks and Neocons to man the top security, foreign policy and military posts in his administration did not augur well. But then two weeks ago one remark by Trump when speaking to reporters caught Moscow’s attention. He had called the decision by Joe Biden to allow Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia using American made ATACMS missiles ‘foolish and dangerous.’ Moreover, other little signs indicated that perhaps the new administration would make changes in policy from the outset. Moscow perused with interest the invitation list to the inauguration, which did not include either Volodymyr Zelensky or EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the Ukrainian’s greatest supporter.

Then in this past week, Trump’s Mar a Lago remarks to the assembled press changed entirely Moscow’s estimation of what the Trump presidency may bring.

Russia’s experts are very happy to see Trump espousing a policy of naked aggression, of pure imperialism to further American interests, which is what his plans for Greenland and for retaking the Panama Canal illustrate. This marks a stark departure from the sweet talk of values based foreign policy that the Democrats have used as their smoke screen to spread chaos globally and enforce American hegemony. It is pure Realpolitik, or interests based foreign policy, and is music to the ears of the Russians.

Accordingly, Biden’s ‘rules-based order’ is kaput, spheres of influence are back in favor. The Russian ‘invasion’ of Ukraine assumes an entirely legitimate nature if, as Trump was saying at Mar al Lago, it had been provoked by Biden’s crossing red lines that had been set down back in 2008 by pushing for Ukraine’s admission to NATO.

Panelists on the Solovyov show said last night that they expect Trump to diminish or entirely cut off aid to Kiev. Talk about defending Ukraine’s 1992 borders, about it dealing a humiliating blow to Russia on the battlefield has ceased. From Trump’s words, Moscow believes that the USA will be indifferent to that actual borders that Ukraine retains at the conclusion of a peace, nor does it wish to provide security guaranties to Ukraine or to envisage its joining NATO at some date in the future. All that counts is for there to be some semblance of sovereignty in the remaining territory when the Russians are through with it that will call itself Ukraine.

Obviously, from the words of the panelists, they do not expect Trump to enforce the crushing sanctions that Biden has just imposed on the Russian energy sector.

Most importantly, they expect that the eventual Trump – Putin summit, which may come soon or may come in April or in August, will not be about Ukraine but about a revision of the global security architecture. The word was not used, but they are clearly looking for a kind of Yalta-2 negotiation. The negotiation will be with Russia, and not with China, because it is Russia that has been the first to directly challenge U.S. global hegemony and it is Russia that remains the intellectual leader of the Global South towards BRICS and a multipolar world.

As for Elon Musk, Vladimir Solovyov’s panelists have greatly enjoyed his blunt and insulting words addressed to heads of government in Europe and further afield who have been Biden’s willing agents in the hybrid and kinetic war against their country over Ukraine. Musk’s publicly calling German chancellor Olaf Scholz a ‘stupid fool.’ His addressing Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau as ‘a little girl’, which is a snide reference to his ambiguous sexual orientation. Moscow takes great pleasure in such scandalous treatment of its enemies.

Moreover, the Solovyov panelists see in all of Musk’s recent doings, including his X interview with Alternative for Germany co-chair Alice Weidel, an exercise in regime change that has a clear ideological dimension: to replace corrupt and cowardly Left-oriented governments in the European Union with friendly to Russia Rightist and populist led governments. All of this they see as closely coordinated with Donald Trump, and it reinforces their newfound enthusiasm for Donald.

Let us hope that Russia’s elites are not mistaken this time about Trump. Their confidence appeared to be so solid that it is tempting to believe that some backchannel between the incoming American president and the Kremlin has been established to confirm the radical policy changes ahead. In the meantime, let us breathe easier.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025