President Donald Trump insisted Russia is "not happy" with his sudden decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria -- but state-run media gloated over his move, even if they don't trust he can follow through.
The president claimed Wednesday that Islamic State militants had been defeated, and then changed course to say the extremist group was now the problem of "local enemies" such as Russia and Iran -- and Moscow's state-run media cheered him on, reported The Daily Beast.
Russian media analyst Julia Davis translated a sampling of reactions to Trump's decision, which apparently caught his military and national security advisers off guard.
"(They're) part of the delirium that is constantly coming over him," said Semyon Bagdasarov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies during an appearance on “The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev.”
"He is an interesting guy, this is like a fiction novel," Bagdasarov added. "I feel bad for his poor defense minister, he’s struggling to keep up.”
Bagdasarov said the U.S. withdrawal would leave massive oil reserves in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province to fall under Russian control, and he said Trump's decision was "a total dream come true."
However, he and other Russian media figures don't take Trump's claims seriously.
“Today, Trump simply woke up on the wrong side of the bed," said Aleksei Kondratyev, a member of the Russian Upper House. "They will do no such thing. They’ve been leaving Afghanistan for the last 20 years.”
TV host Vladimir Soloviev mocked Trump's claims about ISIS.
“Trump woke up this morning, looked up – and ISIS is gone," he said on "The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev." Yesterday it was there, but today it’s gone.”