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Donald Trump's Popularity Poses Unexpected Dilemma for Putin
Newsweek ^ | 2/6/2025 | Isabel van Brugen

Posted on 02/06/2025 12:28:00 PM PST by marcusmaximus

U.S. President Donald Trump is proving to be somewhat popular within Russia, leaving the Kremlin to grapple with how to counter Russians' love of a leader who isn't President Vladimir Putin, recent media reports suggest.

-snip-

Alexander Baunov, the editor-in-chief of Carnegie Politika and a senior fellow at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in an analysis published on January 31 that in Russia, Trump is a new "anti-elitist president" who, "like a beloved Hollywood lone hero, is closer and more understandable to the generation of the Russian elite that lived through the 1990s or grew up watching American movies than Putin with his quiet apparatus career in the special services."

He added that the social media platforms of Russian officials and deputies, which are open to comments, have been "inundated with demands to leave the WHO, tighten policies toward migrants, introduce a visa regime with Central Asian countries, declare diasporas and their leaders 'foreign agents,' and equate ethnic crime with terrorism."

"In other words, to do what Trump does," Baunov wrote.

"Trump is more energetic, fresher, newer than Putin, whose repetitions even his like-minded people are tired of. And the more the Russian elite is obliged to like their boss by virtue of their job, the more sincere and heartfelt is the sympathy for someone else," he continued.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: accordingtoisabel; alexanderbaunov; anydaynowukrainewins; carnegiepolitika; dasbruggie; editorinchief; gabbagabbahey; ifoundmythrill; isabelthefabulist; isabelvanbrugen; isabelvanpoutin; marcususaidamus; newsweak; putin; spamusmaximus; thebruggie; theisabel; themarcus; thepout; theputin; thetrump; tothelastrussian; trump; weaknews; zeeperporn; zelviswinsprettysoon

1 posted on 02/06/2025 12:28:00 PM PST by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus

Maybe Russia can be a U.S. state sooner than Canada. Cheap vodka for all!


2 posted on 02/06/2025 12:30:04 PM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: marcusmaximus
Hello, Clarice.


3 posted on 02/06/2025 12:31:28 PM PST by Allegra (It’s MAGA time! )
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To: marcusmaximus

Let us pray that President Trump can unify USA and Russia together in Christendom as a united bulwark against communist china and satanic muslims in the middle east.


4 posted on 02/06/2025 12:33:21 PM PST by imabadboy99
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To: imabadboy99

Exactly—we and Russia should be allies.

That is what the leftists around the world fear most.


5 posted on 02/06/2025 12:36:05 PM PST by cgbg (It is time to pull the Deep State out of the mass media--like ticks from a dog.)
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To: Larry Lucido

Cool. I still like Canadian however.


6 posted on 02/06/2025 12:45:56 PM PST by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: imabadboy99

Putin is allied with China, Iran and N. Korea.... LOL


7 posted on 02/06/2025 12:46:52 PM PST by rrrod (6)
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To: cgbg

I may be misremembering, but during the W Bush years, didn’t we get along fine with Russia? Hasn’t it only been during Obama and Biden that they are the villains? I think you are right— the left does not want Russia and US to be friends.


8 posted on 02/06/2025 12:48:26 PM PST by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

Tourists flowed into Russia then...and Russians were opening businesses and traveling abroad.
I met several in Bahrain and Dubai. Had pleasant conversations at the hotel bars.
Then along came Putin.


9 posted on 02/06/2025 12:53:43 PM PST by rrrod (6)
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To: All

Russia falling out of favor can be traced to a single event.

Hillary wanted a UN resolution to regime change Gaddafi.

Russia said no. China said no. And both said they would never again vote in favor of any sort of regime change anywhere.

That was it. Hillary declared Russia evil.


10 posted on 02/06/2025 12:53:54 PM PST by Owen
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To: Larry Lucido

Nyet to that.


11 posted on 02/06/2025 12:54:05 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: marcusmaximus

Someone get a can of RAID for these zeepers.

I think they’re multiplying...or just hard to get rid of :)


12 posted on 02/06/2025 1:13:01 PM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

The American left has never forgiven Russia for giving up on international communism.


13 posted on 02/06/2025 1:15:49 PM PST by wildcard_redneck ( )
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To: Allegra; JonPreston
Das Bruggie is BACK!!!


14 posted on 02/06/2025 3:31:50 PM PST by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: Owen
I'm not sure.

I seem to remember that Putin fell out of favor with the Left in 2013, when he passed a law banning gay propaganda.

15 posted on 02/06/2025 3:50:23 PM PST by Bratch
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To: hinckley buzzard
I may be misremembering, but during the W Bush years, didn’t we get along fine with Russia?

If he was President today, Dubya would probably have made an announcement that Ukraine will never join NATO.

That may or may not be sufficient to appease Putin.

16 posted on 02/06/2025 3:53:17 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: hinckley buzzard; marcusmaximus

17 posted on 02/06/2025 4:02:43 PM PST by Bratch
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To: cgbg

Putin and Trump together—image what they could do if working together? The stars would be open to us. Russia and America together—who could stand against us? Image a Trump Hotel in Moscow and St. Petersburg? a Disneyland on the black Sea? Maybe a bridge between Alaska and Siberia? It would take some new thinking on the part of both nations.


18 posted on 02/06/2025 4:27:35 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (. War is Hell, War IS a Crime.)
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To: marcusmaximus

Why would you care? You want Russia destroyed and the Russians dead.


19 posted on 02/07/2025 2:38:03 AM PST by rxh4n1
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