Top Russian MP praises Trump’s pragmatism, readiness for cooperation
The head of the State Duma Committee for Foreign Relations has said Donald Trump’s pragmatic and businesslike approach to politics made him a better candidate than the Democrats with their fixation on spreading liberal ideology and values.
“Overall, Trump looks less ideologically biased than [the incumbent US President Barack] Obama. He is a businessman who sees everything as a string of business deals. This is not the worst of approaches, especially if compared to the purely ideological, fundamentalist approach of Bush’s and Obama’s administrations. They destroyed the lives of whole regions and peoples in the name of some liberal chimeras and pseudo values,” MP Aleksey Pushkov (United Russia) said in an interview with Izvestia daily.
“I would like to emphasize – today Trump looks a more pragmatic candidate who is ready to reach agreements. What will happen after the elections, in case he wins is another question,” the Russian lawmaker said. “In reality the demand for cooperation with Russia exists in the United States, but this demand is being artificially contained and removed from the agenda by the current US administration.”
READ MORE: Top Russian MP warns West against new sanctions
In the same interview, Pushkov gave some examples of the excessively ideological approach to foreign policy, including Hillary Clinton’s behavior during the early stages of the continuing crisis in Libya. He described Clinton’s support of US military intervention in Libya’s conflict as “maniacal,” adding that she was yearning for any information that would justify the overthrow of the regime in that country by an external mechanism.
“Even within the Democratic camp she appears to be one of the leading supporters of military interventions. In this regard she is closer to Bush’s administration that to Obama’s.
Clinton bases her actions on the suggestion that everything depends on the United States’ will. But she is mistaken. The Syrian crisis has shown that regardless of US desire to displace Syrian President Bashar Assad, Assad is likely to remain in his post after Obama leaves his,” Pushkov told the newspaper.
READ MORE: Trump: ‘I want to get along with Russia’
In mid-March, Donald Trump reiterated his intention to mend relations with Russia and other nations if he is elected US president. Answering a question from RT if he wanted a better relationship with Russia, Trump said that he supported the idea. “I want a better relationship with everybody. And with Russia, yeah,” he said. “If we can get along with Russia, that’s very good.”
“[Russian president Vladimir] Putin says very nice things about me. I think that’s very nice. It has no effect on me, other than I think it’s very nice,” Trump added.
In December 2015, Vladimir Putin described Trump as the “absolute front-runner in the presidential race” and said Russia welcomed the US politician’s declared intention to restore normal relations. “He says he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it,” Putin said during his recent marathon annual Q&A session with journalists.
Trump replied that it was a “great honor” for him to receive praise from a “highly respected” leader such as Putin.
