International Courant
BBC
A phrase of recommendation for you: by no means purchase a big amount of champagne except you’re completely certain it’s value celebrating.
In November 2016, Russian ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky was so enthusiastic about Donald Trump’s victory, and so sure that it will rework US-Russia relations, that he downed 132 bottles of bubbly within the Duma, Russia’s parliament, and partied (in his social gathering places of work) in entrance of the TV cameras.
He wasn’t the one one celebrating.
The day after Trump’s shock victory within the White Home, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state broadcaster RT, tweeted her intention to drive by means of Moscow with an American flag in her automobile window.
And I am going to always remember the second a Russian official instructed me she smoked a cigar and drank a bottle of champagne (sure, MORE champagne) to toast Trump’s victory.
Expectations had been excessive in Moscow that Trump would take away sanctions towards Russia; maybe even the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Ukraine as a part of Russia.
“Trump’s worth was that he by no means preached about human rights in Russia,” explains Konstantin Remchukov, proprietor and editor-in-chief of the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper.
It did not take lengthy for all that fizz to vanish.
“Trump launched the hardest sanctions towards Russia on the time,” Remchukov recollects.
“On the finish of his time period, many individuals had been dissatisfied in his presidency.”
That is why, eight years later, Russian officers are — at the least publicly — extra cautious concerning the prospect of a second Trump time period.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky within the State Duma
President Vladimir Putin has even come out and endorsed the Democratic Occasion candidate, though that “endorsement” was extensively interpreted as a Kremlin joke (or as a Kremlin troll).
Putin claimed he favored Kamala Harris’ “infectious” chuckle.
However you do not have to be a seasoned political knowledgeable to know that it’s what Trump stated throughout the marketing campaign, not Harris, that’s assured to place a smile on Putin’s face.
For instance, Trump’s criticism of the extent of US navy help to Ukraine, his obvious reluctance responsible Putin for Russia’s large-scale invasion and, throughout the presidential debate, his refusal to say whether or not he needs Ukraine to enter the warfare wins.
Kamala Harris, alternatively, has argued that supporting Ukraine is in America’s “strategic curiosity” and has referred to as Putin “a murderous dictator.”
Not that Russian state tv has been significantly complimentary of her both. A number of weeks in the past, one in all Russia’s sharpest information anchors was utterly dismissive of Harris’ political skills. He urged she can be higher off internet hosting a TV cooking present.
There may be one other attainable final result that would go well with the Kremlin: a super-tense election, adopted by a contested outcome. An America consumed by post-election chaos, confusion and confrontation would have much less time to deal with international affairs, together with the warfare in Ukraine.
US-Russia relations deteriorated beneath Barack Obama, obtained worse beneath Donald Trump and, within the phrases of not too long ago departed Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov, “are falling aside” beneath Joe Biden.
Washington places the blame squarely on Moscow.
Simply eight months after Putin and Biden met for a summit in Geneva, the Kremlin chief ordered Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Not solely did the Biden administration ship a tsunami of sanctions towards Russia, however U.S. navy help has been essential in serving to Kiev survive the greater than two-and-a-half-year Russian warfare. Among the many superior weapons America has provided to Ukraine are Abrams tanks and HIMARS missile techniques.
It’s onerous to consider that not so way back there was a time when Russia and the US pledged to work collectively as companions to strengthen international safety.
Within the late Eighties, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev fashioned a geopolitical double act to destroy their international locations’ respective nuclear arsenals.
If there was one factor Reagan appeared to take pleasure in as a lot as nuclear disarmament, it was reciting Russian proverbs to Gorbachev in damaged Russian (“By no means purchase 132 bottles of champagne except you are certain it is value celebrating ‘ would have been one).
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Reagan with Gorbachev in 1987
In 1991, the First Girls of the USSR and America, Raisa Gorbacheva and Barbara Bush, unveiled an uncommon monument in Moscow: a mom duck with eight ducklings.
It was a reproduction of a sculpture in Boston Public Gardens and was introduced to Moscow as an emblem of friendship between Soviet and American youngsters.
It’s nonetheless well-liked with Muscovites. Russians flock to Novodevichy Park to pose for photographs with the bronze birds, though few guests know the backstory of the superpower’s ‘duck diplomacy’.
Like US-Russia relations themselves, the Geese have taken a number of hits. On one event some had been stolen and had to get replaced.
I’ll the Moscow Mallard and her ducklings to seek out out what the Russians consider America and the American elections.
“I need America to vanish,” says indignant fisherman Igor, who’s fishing in a close-by pond. “It has brought about so many wars on the earth. The US was our enemy in Soviet instances and stays so in the present day. It does not matter who’s president.”
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America because the everlasting enemy of Russia – that may be a worldview that’s usually mirrored right here within the state media. Is Igor so indignant as a result of he will get his information from Russian TV? Or perhaps it is as a result of he hasn’t caught many fish.
Most individuals I speak to right here do not see America as an evil opponent.
“I am all for peace and friendship,” says Svetlana. “However my good friend in America does not dare to name me now. Perhaps there isn’t any freedom of speech there. Or perhaps there isn’t any freedom of speech right here in Russia. Do not know.”
“Our international locations and our two peoples must be associates,” says Nikita, “with out wars and with out competing to see who has essentially the most missiles. I choose Trump. When he was president, there have been no main wars.”
Regardless of the variations between Russia and America, there’s one factor the 2 international locations have in frequent: they’ve all the time had male presidents.
Can the Russians ever see that altering?
“I believe it will be nice if a lady turned president,” says Marina.
“I wish to vote for a feminine president right here (in Russia). I am not saying it will be higher or worse. However it will be totally different.”
Between now and the US elections on November 5, BBC correspondents in different elements of the world examine the influence the result may have the place they’re, and what individuals around the globe take into consideration this race for the White Home.
