According to a report in the Daily Beast by Russian media expert Julia Davis, commentators on Russian state media are rubbing their hands in glee at the acquittal of Donald Trump by the GOP-controlled Senate and see the president as, once again, easy prey for Kremlin manipulation.
As she notes, "Having predicted this outcome for his impeachment trial, Russian experts and state media pundits are anticipating beneficial side effects for the Kremlin as Trump is more Trump—and more Russia’s Trump—than ever."
She points out that popular news host Dmitry Kiselyov recently stated, "Democrats are openly raging, but while they’re licking their wounds, Trump can now objectively afford to pursue a more positive course of action towards Russia—just as he planned all along while being elected for the first term.”
"Expecting concessions from Trump, the Russian state media are playing along with his agenda, attacking the Democrats, the Ukraine whistleblower, and impeachment witnesses. Vesti Nedeli described the ouster of the Vindman brothers as Trump 'settling the scores' against those who dared to speak up against him. It repeated a previously debunked conspiracy theory baselessly claiming Yevgeny Vindman was assigned to review former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book manuscript before 'leaking the draft to the press,'" she writes, adding, "Pundits on Vladimir Soloviev’s show appeared practically giddy about Trump’s acquittal and the retaliatory onslaught that followed. 'Trump pulled out a machine gun and started to purge everyone who ever said a bad word about him,' exclaimed Dmitry Egorchenkov, director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, 'because in his mythologized world, he is now a superhero.'"
Davis goes on to note that Russian President Vladimir Putin is making plans for "the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France—start convening together," adding Egorchenkov stating that the initiative is "'ingenious' since this move would allow Trump to normalize relations with Russia under the guise of pursuing world peace."
According to political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev, the president has destroyed the Republican Party from within and left no natural successor which will also work in Russia's favor, while also predicting "Trump might start to engage in McCarthyism, which will be the first step in the self-destruction of the American system.”
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