WP: Russia is critical of Trump's appointees
Few of Trump's candidates for the government are beneficial to Russia, most, according to Russian commentators, on the contrary, will become a problem, writes a WP correspondent. She gathered the opinions of journalists from Moscow about the seven appointees of the president-elect.
Mary Ilyushina
Russian officials and the media are closely monitoring whom President-elect Donald Trump appoints to his future cabinet, carefully monitoring their positions on military assistance to Ukraine and statements addressed to Vladimir Putin in the hope of anticipating the policies of a president who is famous for his unpredictability.
Officially, the Kremlin has taken a very cool and wait-and-see attitude towards Trump's victory in order to find out whether he will stick to his conciliatory election rhetoric or go along with the intelligence services, which occupy a predominantly anti-Russian position.
At the same time, the state media studied the elections in every detail and assessed them with bias. Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most resonant voices of Russian propaganda, even launched the hashtag “Team D” on his Telegram (meaning Donald Trump), urging his 1.3 million subscribers to follow his appointments.
At the moment, the conclusions reached so far are very ambiguous from the point of view of Russia, starting from the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has been sympathetic to Moscow for years, and ending with national security adviser Michael Waltz, who calls for finding levers to bring Putin to the negotiating table.
Pro-Kremlin commentators spoke of some of the appointees with cautious optimism, hoping that the Republicans would eventually make what they considered a “pragmatic” decision on Ukraine: force Kiev to a peaceful settlement and address internal problems.
“Somewhere in a Kiev bunker, a former comedian is quietly whining,” reads an article by the state news agency RIA Novosti with a hint at President Vladimir Zelensky's past as a TV presenter. “If the unfolding show remains on the blue screen, we will say “thank you for the popcorn” and continue to move forward, which we are doing now,” the author concludes.
Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence
Gabbard's appointment to the post of head of national intelligence caused the greatest excitement in Russia. The fact is that she has long been reputed to be a favorite of the Russian propaganda TV channel RT, which focused on her sympathies with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Putin.
Shortly after the announcement of her appointment, Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article entitled “The CIA and the FBI are trembling: why Trump's protege Tulsi Gabbard at the head of National Intelligence will support Russia.”
According to the authors of the article, the “daring brunette beauty” blames the conflict in Ukraine exclusively on the White House and “treats Russian President Vladimir Putin with understanding.”
“Tulsi has a theory: the Democrats staged a provocation with Ukraine and began to demonize Russia in order to keep Trump out of the presidency,” the article continues.
Oleg Tsarev, a former pro-Moscow Ukrainian politician now living in Russia, called the appointment “encouraging,” referring to her recent remarks that Vice President Kamala Harris was the “main instigator” of the proxy war in Ukraine, saying a few days before the entry of Russian troops that Kiev should become a member of NATO.
Gabbard also posted a video claiming that the United States has set up 25 to 30 biological laboratories in Ukraine, and accused the Biden administration of hiding them — this refuted conspiracy theory has been planted by the Russian Defense Ministry for many years.
Keith Kellogg, Special Representative for Ukraine and Russia
Trump's choice of a new special representative to lead negotiations on a settlement in Ukraine was met with coolness in Moscow.
Sergei Markov, a political analyst close to the Kremlin, suggested that Moscow assumes that Kellogg is likely to follow in the footsteps of Kurt Volker, Trump's first-term special envoy to Ukraine, who is extremely unpopular in Russia.
“There are no special hopes for General Kellogg in Russia. Probably the same corrupt functionary of the Deep State as Kurt Volker,” Markov wrote on his Telegram, adding that Volker “betrayed Trump and did everything for war instead of peace.”
The Russian media drew attention to Kellogg's past remarks, including that neither Hitler nor Napoleon were able to defeat Russia. This was interpreted as a warning about the difficulties of a land war against the country.
Other analysts are closely examining Kellogg's peace plan, in which he called for a quick ceasefire and a negotiated settlement, allowing for territorial concessions.
Kellogg suggested linking further U.S. assistance to Kiev's participation in peace talks, threatening to provide Ukraine with “everything necessary to destroy [Putin's] opponent on the battlefield” if Moscow refuses diplomacy. The plan also assumes that Russia will start negotiations if the United States postpones Ukraine's membership in NATO for a long period — according to commentators, this at least recognizes Russia's anxiety about NATO.
“At first glance, this “plan” does not promise Russia relief in the next six months," said political analyst Maxim Suchkov. — We hope that Trump wants peace, but his version of peace is “America first.” This means peace on the terms of the United States, not Russia.”
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State
The Zvezda TV channel, funded by the Ministry of Defense, stressed Rubio's disagreement with further assistance to Ukraine, which made “the authorities in Kiev feel bad.” In 2022, Rubio voted for a package of assistance to Ukraine, but has since changed his position, and Russian commentators have not failed to note this.
Other experts, however, consider Rubio an anti-Russian “hawk”, emphasizing that his position is noticeably more aggressive than that of the future president. News agencies recalled that the senator had introduced several bills providing for punitive measures against Russia, including tougher financial and personal sanctions against the government elite, and also called Putin a “bandit.”
In 2022, Rubio met with Leonid Volkov* — a close ally of the late opposition leader and Putin's personal enemy Alexei Navalny — and discussed sanctions lists against Moscow.
Pro-Kremlin blogger Oleg Yasinsky called Rubio an “outspoken American imperialist of the Cold War,” adding that he considers Russia and its allies Iran and China direct enemies of the United States.
Michael Waltz, National Security Advisor
Along with Rubio, Waltz's appointment to a key security position is one of the most troubling moments for Moscow, where the congressman is reputed to be a “hawk” determined to end the conflict in Ukraine through the “restoration of deterrence.”
On the one hand, he argued about the need to put an end to the conflict in a “responsible way" and opposed additional support for Ukraine, which the Russian media did not keep silent about.
But his general criticism of Moscow, barbs against Russia (“a gas station with nuclear weapons”), calls for stricter energy sanctions and demands to “stop Putin” have increased fears in the Russian capital that a Trump presidency may not bring much benefit to the Kremlin.
Even more disturbing for Russian observers was Waltz's own comment that he had met with Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan to discuss issues such as Ukraine and that they were “working as a team” during the transition period.
Pete Hegseth, Minister of Defense
Hegseth's former position (the host of the Fox News channel) caused a lot of ridicule among Russian experts: they saw in his appointment an attempt by Trump to “troll” the American deep state.
In an article on the state-owned RT channel, famous Russian military blogger Ilya Mersh (aka “Older than Eddie” in Telegram) calls Hegseth an “eccentric cadre” whose grandiose plan to rebuild the US army from top to bottom, up to the resignation of politically correct generals and the Pentagon's rejection of the doctrine of “diversity”, is sure to cause “administrative friction”.
“By itself, it will take at least a couple of years. There won't be much time left for actually preparing for wars and conducting them,” the author concludes, expressing Moscow's hope that Trump will fulfill his promise and focus on internal affairs.
John Ratcliffe, Director of the CIA
Russian commentators recalled Ratcliffe's work as director of national intelligence in the first Trump administration and his willingness to declassify reports that, he said, convincingly proved that Russia's alleged interference in the 2020 elections was a duck — and the Kremlin welcomed it.
“According to Donald Trump, it was Ratcliffe who exposed Hillary Clinton's lies about Russian interference in the 2016 election,” reads a brief summary on Solovyov's Telegram channel. It is also noted that Ratcliffe has repeatedly sounded the alarm that the main opponent of the United States in the long term is China.
Other publications, however, noted that he criticized the Biden administration for allegedly weak Russian response to the special operation.
Scott Bessent, Minister of Finance
Russian business publications considered that the appointment of hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to the post of finance minister would continue the line that has become familiar to Moscow since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 - more and more sanctions are coming.
In an interview with Barrons, Bessent called the U.S. response to the conflict in Ukraine weak. Bessent rejected the idea of accepting Ukraine as a NATO member as “neoconservative nonsense,” but added that it should be immediately admitted to the EU, and the West should "strengthen Poland very vigorously."
For Russia, this position of the Cabinet of Ministers is especially fundamental, since one of Putin's goals in any negotiations on a peace agreement with Ukraine will be the lifting of at least part of the sanctions imposed on the country since 2022, especially given that the Russian economy is showing signs of overheating and rampant inflation.
“Bessent's position on sanctions, Russia and Ukraine is a good illustration of the different views that take place in the future Trump administration, and which are not entirely favorable to Moscow,” comments the independent business newspaper The Bell**. ”And this is another confirmation that if it is not possible to reach a favorable deal on Ukraine, there is a high probability that US policy towards Russia will not soften, but will tighten, as it eventually happened during Trump's first term."
Pro-Kremlin commentators noted that Bessent used to work for billionaire businessman George Soros, who has a special role in conspiracy theories planted by Russia. Thus, it is alleged that the businessman and his associates secretly control the US government.
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* An individual performing the functions of a foreign agent
** Media that performs the functions of a foreign agent
