How Russia Sees Trump?

Eight years ago, Democrats seized the "Russia hand" narrative to try to tip the election in their favor. They lost but the narrative have poisoned the US-Russia relations for years to come.

At the time, many in the West came to portray Donald Trump as “the Kremlin candidate”. That too was a wrong assumption.

Back then I penned a story in The National Interest that detailed a palette of attitudes in Russia vis-a-vis Trump. Most of it holds true to the day, though I might want to run an updated version of it, given how the world has changed and how the US-Russia relationship has degraded ever since.

Russians have a different perception about what constitutes American values and “public rules”. This vision is born out of their own distinct history and the entirely different social and political experience. The notion of “political correctness” is viewed by many Russians as a sign of the “fakeness” and “insincerity” of the Western culture. Social taboos that exist in the US are perceived as largely artificial and self-imposed. Therefore, ordinary Russian citizens look at Trump through a different lens than his opponents in the US. For the Russians here is a man who unafraid to speak his mind freely; someone openly challenging a political system they themselves believe is imperfect.

For that matter, another “trouble stirrer-up” of this race-- Bernie Sanders--was equally likeable: both Trump and Sanders each in their own way buffeted a system that was in dire need of one. Very often descriptions of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were lumped together in the Russian discourse. Russians pay attention to Trump without always fully realizing why some Americans fear him – but understanding even less why many Americans still vote for him.

This is not necessarily how Trump is perceived by the expert community and decision-makers in Russia....