American “rednecks have given their government the middle finger”, and the Russian elite is
“euphoric”, says Georgy Bovt. Russian pundits are sure President Vladimir Putin will have an easier
time dealing with the “transparent” and blunt Donald Trump than with “hypocrites” such as Barack
Obama and Hillary Clinton. They think Trump will give Russia a free hand in dealing with its
neighbours, especially the Baltic states and Ukraine. But look closer and you’ll see that the people set
to take key foreign policy roles in the Trump administration are “the same right-wing conservatives
of the Reagan era”. They follow a doctrine of “peace through strength” and will replace Obama’s
military budget cuts with a massive defence build-up. A hugely expensive arms race seems inevitable. To the extent that he has given specifics, Trump has promised to develop a new missile defence system, which will force Moscow to update its own nuclear arsenal. Russia’s elite could soon regret its premature celebrations. Remember, they “spoke contemptuously of Ronald Reagan too when he became president”. What can an actor do to us, they sneered. Yet just a few years later, the Soviet Union was no more. The Kremlin shouldn’t underestimate this “upstart billionaire demagogue”.
