[🇷🇺] Russia---News & Views

'A brave man': Putin congratulates Trump on election victory

File photo

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on his election victory in his first public comment on the US vote, and he praised the president-elect's courage during the July assassination attempt.

"His behavior at the moment of an attempt on his life left an impression on me. He turned out to be a brave man," Putin said at an international forum following a speech in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

"He manifested himself in the very correct way, bravely as a man," he added.

Putin also said that what Trump has said "about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least."

The Kremlin earlier welcomed Trump's claim that he could negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine "in 24 hours" but emphasised that it will wait for concrete policy steps.

″I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election as president of the United States of America," Putin said in a question-and-answer session at the conference.

As to what he expects from a second Trump administration, Putin said, "I don't know what will happen now. I have no idea."

"For him, this is still his last presidential term. What he will do is his matter," added Putin, who this year began a fifth term that will keep him in power until 2030 and could seek six more years in office after that.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday the Kremlin is not ruling out the possibility of contact between Putin and Trump before the inauguration, given that Trump "said he would call Putin before the inauguration."

Peskov has emphasised that Moscow views the US as an "unfriendly" country that is directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict. He dismissed arguments that Putin's failure to reach out quickly to Trump could hurt future ties, saying that Moscow's relations with Washington already are at the "lowest point in history" and arguing that it will be up to the new US leadership to change the situation.

The Kremlin's cautious stand reflected its view of the US vote as a choice between two unappealing possibilities. While Trump is known for his admiration of Putin, the Russian leader has repeatedly noted that during Trump's first term, there were "so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia like no other president has ever introduced before him."​

Kremlin denies Trump call, says West not ready for talks
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 12 November, 2024, 01:39

Russia Monday denied a reported call between president Vladimir Putin and US president-elect Donald Trump on the Ukraine conflict and said it saw no signs the West was ready for talks.

The Washington Post said on Sunday that Trump had spoken by phone on Thursday with Putin, telling him not to inflame the conflict.

Trump’s election to the White House has the potential to upend the almost three-year conflict and has thrown into question Washington’s multi-billion dollar support for Kyiv, crucial to its defence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the report, telling journalists it was ‘false’.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said in a written statement: ‘We do not comment on private calls between president Trump and other world leaders’.

A senior Ukrainian presidency official also said Kyiv was ‘not informed’ of any call between Putin and Trump.

The Republican said on the campaign trail that he could end the fighting within hours and has indicated he would talk directly with Putin.

Trump has not said how he intends to strike a peace deal on Ukraine or what terms he is proposing.

He spoke by phone with German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday and the pair ‘agreed to work together towards a return to peace in Europe’, according to Scholz’s spokesman.

But Peskov said ‘there are no preparations’ for Putin to hold talks with Scholz and it was too early to say whether Europe’s position on Ukraine had changed.

‘We see a certain nervousness, various fears among Europeans over the election of Trump as US president,’ the Kremlin spokesman said.

Putin last week ‘repeated that he is open to all talks’, Peskov said, but ‘no preparation is being carried out now. We have not received any signals’.

‘If they say that some signals will come out, then we have to wait.’

So far, ‘European leaders are continuing to try to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia’, Peskov said, while Moscow is ‘continuing our special operation until we achieve all our aims’.

Ukraine has long been pushing the US and Europe to allow it to fire long-range weapons deep into Russia.

Peskov insisted that ‘no kinds of weapons can change’ the dynamic on the battlefield, where Russian forces are making rapid advances in the eastern Donetsk region.

‘Now, when the situation in the theatre of combat is not in Kyiv’s favour, the West is faced with a choice,’ Sergei Shoigu, former defence minister and now secretary of Russia’s security council, said last week.

‘To continue financing Kyiv and the destruction of the Ukrainian population or recognise the current realities and start negotiating.’

Air alerts wailed across Ukraine early Monday as Russian strikes killed at least six people, a day after record drone attacks by both sides.

The Kremlin spokesman had told state media on Sunday that ‘the signals are positive’ after Trump’s victory, because ‘at least he’s talking about peace, and not about confrontation’.

In its report, the Post said that Trump reminded Putin in the phone call of Washington’s sizeable military foothold in Europe.

Several people speaking to the US paper said Trump had expressed the desire for more conversations on ‘the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon’ and briefly raised the question of land.

The Russian president has demanded Ukraine withdraw from swathes of its eastern and southern territory as a precondition to peace talks.

Following Trump’s election, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned there should be ‘no concessions’ to Putin.

Ukraine and many in the West fear any settlement that rewards Putin would embolden the Kremlin leader and lead to more aggression.

Meanwhile, air alerts wailed across Ukraine early Monday as Russian strikes killed at least six people, a day after record drone attacks by both sides and Trump reportedly urging Putin not to escalate the conflict.

Trump’s election to the White House has the potential to upend the almost three-year conflict and has thrown into question Washington’s multi-billion dollar support for Kyiv, crucial to its defence.​

Russia paves way to remove Taliban from ‘terror’ list
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 17 December, 2024, 22:26


AFP file photo

Russia’s parliament on Tuesday approved a bill that could pave the way for Moscow to lift its designation of the Taliban as a banned ‘terrorist’ organisation.

Moscow has courted relations with the Taliban since they seized power in Afghanistan after the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from in 2021.

Officials have since been pushing to remove the Islamist group from Moscow’s official list of outlawed ‘terrorist’ groups.

The State Duma passed a bill outlining a mechanism for groups to be legally removed from the list — putting the necessary legal framework in place for an expected future decision.

The bill now passes to the upper-house Federation Council and then to president Vladimir Putin to sign into law.

In a visit to Kabul last month, top Russian security officials told their Afghan counterparts that Moscow would soon remove the Taliban from the list of banned organisations.

Under the proposed system, Russia’s Prosecutor General would file a request with a Russian court outlining that a group has ‘ceased’ its activities ‘in support of terrorism’. A judge could then rule to remove the designation.

The expected move would not amount to a formal recognition of the Taliban government and what it calls the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ — a step no country has yet taken.

Putin called the Taliban ‘allies in the fight against terrorism’ earlier this year, while Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for the West to remove sanctions on Afghanistan and take ‘responsibility’ for reconstruction efforts in the country.

Russia’s allies in Central Asia — Afghanistan’s neighbours — are also pledging better relations with the Taliban. Kazakhstan removed the Taliban from its own list of banned ‘terrorist’ groups at the end of 2023.

The move could boost diplomacy between Moscow and Afghanistan, with both countries facing isolation in the West.

After seizing power in 2021, the Taliban have enforced an extreme form of Islamic law that effectively bans women from public life.​