Putin Is Loving This

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1. Olga Khazan: “Upon hearing the news that President Donald Trump had suspended military aid to Ukraine, I sat down for some Russian must-see TV: white guys screaming about international relations. Curious to understand how Trump’s Kremlin-friendly move was playing in the motherland, I wanted to compare the reaction of Russian state news to that of American right-wing channels. 

   “… Over the past few days, Russian news talk shows have consisted almost entirely of translated clips of Trump-administration officials and Trump surrogates … Soon after the Trump-Zelensky blowup, the Kremlin said that America’s foreign policy now ‘largely aligns with our vision.’ Across three different news shows on the state-owned Channel One and Russia-1, which take their marching orders directly from Russian President Vladimir Putin, this cozy alignment was on full display. It seemed that Russian state TV, and Putin by extension, could not be more pleased with what has been happening. The shows I watched simply broadcast clips of Trump officials, and then their all-male panels of analysts—no DEI in Russia!—echoed their exact words, approvingly.

   “Even when the shows’ panelists admitted to some nervousness about Trump’s next moves, they said his decision to cut off aid to Ukraine ‘raised our spirits,’ as one guest put it. At times, they sounded like they were discussing a problematic friend who everyone agrees is crazy but who inadvertently did something useful.

   “Panelists repeatedly made reference to Ukraine drawing the world closer to ‘World War III’—a direct quote from Trump, which has since been parroted in various U.S. media appearances by his loyalists. They fawned over Trump’s prowess and insulted Zelensky; one guest called the Ukrainian president ‘dust under the feet of Trump,’ an even nastier take on the man whom Trump called ‘no angel’ and ‘a dictator.’

   “… The panelist Igor Korotchenko put a bow on everything by remarking with relief that ‘Biden financed this war, but the priorities of the new administration are different.’ He suggested that the Trump administration should go further than pausing military aid, that it should have Elon Musk cut Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite-internet system—something the Trump administration has already threatened to do.

   “‘If Trump is able to remove Zelensky as a political figure from the global chessboard,’ Korotchenko added, ‘he should be eligible for the Nobel Peace Prize.’ Darrell Issa, the Republican U.S. Representative who nominated Trump for the award on Monday, couldn’t have said it better himself.”

   Read more: [https://theatln.tc/GUfySmWj](https://theatln.tc/GUfySmWj) 

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