- Kremlin officials and allies welcomed Donald Trump’s 2024 election win.
- Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president, said it was bad news for Ukraine.
- Some in Moscow are skeptical about whether Trump will make a major difference.
Kremlin officials and allies celebrated as Donald Trump closed in on victory in the 2024 election.
In a post on Telegram on Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and senior security official, said that Trump’s win was bad news for Ukraine.
“Trump has one useful quality for us: as a businessman to the core, he mortally dislikes spending money on various hangers-on and stupid hanger-on allies, on bad charity projects and on voracious international organizations,” Medvedev said.
The US has given Ukraine $64.1 billion in military assistance since the 2022 Russian invasion. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly questioned the aid.
Medvedev said that Ukraine was likely among the projects Trump wouldn’t want to spend money on and said Ukraine’s leaders would be trying to console themselves.
But he also questioned how much Trump would be able to change the dynamics of US policy toward Ukraine.
“The question is how much Trump will be forced to give to the war. He’s stubborn, but the system is stronger,” said Medvedev.
Meanwhile, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said a Trump victory could help improve Russia’s relationship with the US.
“Their convincing victory shows that ordinary Americans are tired of the unprecedented lies, incompetence, and malice of the Biden administration,” said the former Goldman Sachs banker, reported Reuters.
“This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Trump on his “impressive election victory” and said he hoped that the Republican would play a key role in ending the war.
Resetting relations
The Kremlin’s official reaction to Trump’s win was more muted than that of some Russian officials, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov describing the election as an “internal US matter.”
“We are unaware of any [Russian President Vladimir] Putin plans to congratulate Trump on his win,” Peskov said.
Despite the understated response from the Kremlin, there are indications that the Russian leadership has long favored a Trump victory in the election.
US intelligence agencies during the election said that Russia was behind disinformation campaigns apparently designed to discredit Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
In July, Russian government sources told The Moscow Times that the Russian leadership was privately rooting for Trump in the election.
Trump has also been open about his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He continued to praise Putin for being “smart” and “genius” after he began his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. He has also said he would be able to swiftly negotiate a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
Though he’s offered few details on how, a peace plan suggested by his running mate, JD Vance, on a podcast in September indicates that it’d involve Ukraine ceding the territory Russia holds and pledging neutrality.
Ahead of Trump’s declared victory, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson sent a coded message of congratulations.
“They win who live by love for their country, and not by hatred for foreigners,” Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
There’s reason to be wary
The reaction to Trump’s victory from Russian state TV host and Kremlin propagandist Olga Skabeyeva was openly celebratory.
“Wow! Our congratulations! 47th president of the US”, she posted on Telegram, after Fox News called the election for Trump early Wednesday.
However, during his term in office, Trump’s praise for Putin wasn’t always translated into action.
The Republican, for example, sold Ukraine anti-tank weapons that Democratic Party President Barack Obama had refused to provide in one of a series of moves that did little to reduce tensions between Moscow and Washington, DC.
Russia-US relations are now so poor that some insiders question whether Trump will change the dynamic.
“Of course they want Trump — that’s clear — but the result of this election will not be a game changer for Russia,” a former Kremlin official who still operates in government circles told The Washington Post.
“The situation has become truly terrible. US-Russian relations are in deadlock. And everyone is a hostage of it — even Putin.”
