Paul
Goble
Staunton, October 20 – Russians who
follow Donald Trump closely divide into two camps, the Trumpophiles who
consider like most US Republicans that he speaks for right of center policies they
want to follow in Russia, and the Trumpophobes who view him much as US Democrats
do as the destroyer of the international order, Sergey Mitrofanov says.
What is interesting, the Moscow
commentator says, is that Russian television commentaries rather than sending a
clear message veer from one of these positions to the other on a regular basis in
an attempt to create an image of the American president in between (newizv.ru/news/society/20-10-2019/nash-televizor-sravnil-donalda-trampa-s-mihailom-gorbachevym).
Moscow television doesn’t promote
pure Trumpophilism because “Russia today is hardly a republic,” although many on
air celebrate parts of his agenda, including hostility to immigrants and
intellectuals. At the same time, it
sometimes sounds like the Trumpophobes as when it condemned his letter to
Turkish President Erdogan. That isn’t how foreign policy is conducted.
Russian TV like the Kremlin may be
pleased with the consequences of Trump’s actions -- his sacrifice of the Kurds
and his antagonism to Turkey works to Moscow’s benefit – but it can’t avoid making
negative comments about how the US leader does so, Mitrofanov continues. And that divide opens the way for some
intriguing comments.
One of the most interesting of these
comes from a political scientist with the striking name M. Sinelnikov-Orishak. “He
is a master of the unexpected comparison and this time he has compared Trump
with Gorbachev but of course not in a complimentary way.” Instead, he suggested
in one recent broadcast that to be like Gorbachev is to fail at everything one
touches.
And that in Sinelnikv-Orishak’s view
is exactly what one needs to say about Trump, however much Russians agree with him
or however much the Kremlin benefits from what he does.
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