Story highlights
Jill Dougherty: Trump's love affair with Putin is playing out well for Russia and Putin's candidacy for the 2018 elections
Trump's travails can serve the Kremlin's ambitions: A message to the world that the US is a shambles, she writes
Editor’s Note: Jill Dougherty is a former CNN foreign affairs correspondent and Moscow bureau chief with expertise in Russia and the former Soviet Union. The opinions in this article belong to the author.
(CNN) —
For weeks after Donald Trump’s election, “Trumpomania” ruled the Russian airwaves.
State-controlled media were besotted with the rich American who didn’t insult their President or lambaste their country for human rights violations – who actually thought it would be “nice” if Russia and America “got along.”
Russian TV carried more news about Trump than about Vladimir Putin. It seemed only a matter of time before Trump would lift economic sanctions on Russia and join hands with Putin to fight terrorism.
But the sanctions stayed in place. Trump started Tweeting about winning an arms race. His UN ambassador condemned Moscow for annexing Crimea. Then came “KremlinGate.”
In Moscow, the love affair is cooling. State media are dialing down the temperature on Trump – fast. Whole newscasts go by without a word about him. Like a spurned lover telling a friend how it all went wrong, Kremlin spinmeisters are trying to make sense of it all for Russian viewers.
They’re not blaming Trump, yet, although hints of dissatisfaction at his management style sometimes creep in. Instead, they’re reaching back in their propaganda playbook for some tried-and-true tropes about the United States.
Master media showman Dmitry Kiselev, in his weekly TV program “News of the Week,” gave a textbook vision of why Trump isn’t delivering on his promise to improve the relationship with America.
The “oligarchic media” – the same ones Trump has called “enemies of the American people,” Kiselev noted – are at war with the new president, determined to bring him down.
“Radical liberals” won’t accept the results of the election and are “plotting a revolution”. Even a mention of Russia by Trump or his administration carries “high political risk.”
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