Even after sanctions, the Kremlin continued to bet on Trump

The Kremlin still hopes that the good personal relationship between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will help reduce sanctions pressure from Washington, Bloomberg writes , citing high-ranking Russian officials and experts close to the authorities.

Details

• Since the leaders of the two countries have warm personal contacts, the Kremlin believes that Trump sincerely wants to revive relations between Russia and the United States and will do this if he gets a “window of opportunity,” the agency said. Senior Russian officials, according to him, believe that the American president can at least moderate the growing desire of Congress to introduce new "draconian" sanctions. This push by Trump to improve relations between countries and the size of the Russian economy will protect Moscow from tough sanctions like those imposed on Iran that led to its financial isolation, officials said.
• “The Kremlin understands Trump’s logic and believes that the reaction of the markets and society is excessive, because nothing terrible happened. Everyone understands that Trump had to respond to the actions of Congress and that it is important for him to slow down the progress of the bill [of US senators on sanctions],” Andrey Kortunov, CEO of the Russian Council on Foreign Affairs, explained to Bloomberg.
• its biggest drop since mid-spring amid new US sanctions As the Russian ruble suffered , the Kremlin publicly complained that the US was moving away from the "heavy but constructive" tone of the Helsinki summit. However, no retaliatory measures have yet been taken. “We perceive these actions in view of the difficult political situation in the United States. But patience, of course, is not infinite, ”explained Alexander Dynkin, head of the IMEMO RAS.
• According to Kortunov, the Kremlin hopes the Trump administration's sanctions will set the stage for improved relations after the November U.S. elections. “We are in no hurry to criticize the American administration,” Kortunov said.

Context

• After the meeting between Putin and Trump in Helsinki, for which the American president was severely criticized at home, several authoritative American senators submitted to Congress a bill on new sanctions, including, for example, a partial ban on investments in Russian government debt and restrictions on working with the largest Russian banks .
• After that, the Trump administration announced sanctions against Russia due to the poisoning of the Skripals. It was also reported that an executive order is being prepared that will allow the president to impose sanctions for interference in US elections.
• Trump's critics are skeptical about these initiatives of the American president's team: they believe that the president is simply trying to seize the initiative on the Russian issue from Congress.

The well-being of Russians directly depends on what the new sanctions against Russia announced by the United States will be. As experience shows, the sanctions war turns for ordinary citizens into sharp jumps in the ruble exchange rate, rising prices in stores and layoffs in large companies. And the anti-sanctions imposed by Russia often only reinforce these trends.

Artem Gubenko