After an outpouring of euphoria among Russia’s political elite over the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday gave a more measured response in his annual address to the nation, calling for cooperation, but expressing misgivings over some of Trump’s statements about nuclear weapons.
Speaking to an audience of political and economic barons in the St George’s Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace, Putin praised his compatriots for rallying around “patriotic values” and for eschewing the lure of populism.
He said that around the world, “even in the most seemingly affluent countries and stable regions, more and more fractures and conflicts on political, ethnic, religious and social grounds are rising.”
Photo: AFP
Putin did not mention Trump by name, saying only that Russia wanted to work with the incoming US administration “to normalize and begin to develop bilateral relations on an equal and mutually beneficial basis.”
His comments largely echoed the message he gave Trump in a telephone call soon after the Nov. 8 election, when both men agreed that something needed to be done to improve “the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations.”
He also made clear that Russia demanded to be treated as a global power, not the “regional power” that US President Barack Obama described it as in 2014.
“We have a joint responsibility for the provision of international security and stability, for the strengthening of anti-proliferation regimes,” Putin said, referring to efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
In another apparent reference to Trump’s campaign statements on nuclear weapons policy, which included assertions that the US arsenal had “fallen way behind” Russia’s and needed to catch up, Putin warned against any attempt by Washington to disrupt what he called the balance of nuclear firepower between the two countries.
“I would like to emphasize that attempts to break strategic parity are extremely dangerous and can lead to a global catastrophe,” Putin said. “This must not be forgotten for a single second.”
Putin’s mixing of pointed reminders of Russia’s status as a nuclear power with a measured expression of hope for an end to the current deep chill in relations with Washington contrasted sharply with the glee expressed by many Russian politicians and commentators after Trump’s election victory.
In the run-up to the election, state-controlled news outlets cast Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton as a Russophobic hawk and warmonger, while Trump was presented as the candidate who would bring a new and sunny dawn to relations between Moscow and Washington.
Putin, who has repeatedly accused the Obama administration of mollycoddling militant groups, said the US needed to focus on “a real rather than dreamed-up threat” and join Russia in fighting international terrorism.
The “dreamed-up” threat seemed to refer to fear in Washington and many European capitals that Russia has become a menace to security since it seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supported pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ignoring US efforts to destroy the Islamic State group, Putin said the problem of international terrorism “is being solved by our servicemen in Syria.”
A new foreign policy doctrine signed by Putin on Thursday underscored the problems with Russia’s relations with the West and set a high bar for any swift easing of tensions. It stressed the gravity of “the serious crisis between Russia and the West” and blamed this on “geopolitical expansion” by NATO and the EU.
It said Russia and the US could work together only on the basis of “equality, mutual respect for interests and noninterference in the internal affairs of each other.”
Insisting that Russia does “not accept any attempts to organize pressure,” the doctrine said Moscow “reserves the right to react hard to unfriendly actions,” including by bolstering national defense and taking reciprocal measures.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of