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Friend or foe, Putin's making the most of Trump
Friend or foe, Putin's making the most of Trump
Putin spokesman on US-Russia relations 02:58
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
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.
Jill Dougherty
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."
If
this sounds vaguely familiar, that's because you have heard it before.
Soviet Cold War propaganda employed similar themes. Exploiting America's
real faults, like racial and economic inequality, it depicted the
United States as a hell-on-Earth for poor people and minorities. The
country was run by the rich, usually depicted as fat men in top hats and
striped pants. America's proletariat had no chance to change the
system.
True, fitting
Trump into this picture takes some creative cutting and pasting. After
all, he is rich and so are most of his top officials. So the Kremlin has
had to redefine who runs America. Mr Moneybags is out; the "oligarchic
media" is in. Cribbing a word usually used to describe billionaire
Russian businessmen, the Kremlin-controlled media now quote Trump and
his favorite phrase "fake media."
The Kremlin's media messaging is borrowing other expressions from the US President.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov decries "media hysterics" in the United States. Dmitry Kiselev says "radical liberals" are working against the President.
Why
is the Kremlin so interested in US democracy? Like their Soviet
ancestors, it's a way to kill at least two birds with one stone.
Moscow
gets to criticize the United States as a fake democracy. Like Trump
during the presidential campaign, it can call it a rigged system. Any
lessons about democracy the United States wants to teach the world are
bogus. The US media are "enemies of the people" -- ironically, a phrase
used from the earliest days of the Bolshevik revolution.
The
Russian state media's persecution of Trump theme also gives the Kremlin
a chance to warn Russian citizens that it could happen at home.
We've heard before about radical liberals want to bring down Vladimir Putin. Divided societies are doomed. Enemies are out to rock the boat and carry out a silent coup.
All
this is playing out in Russia against the backdrop of its own political
drama: the 2018 presidential campaign, in which Vladimir Putin is
expected to run again.
Trump
isn't Putin. The Kremlin knows that only too well. Trump's lack of
discipline, his unpredictability, his incapacity to grab the reins and
run the United States the way he wants to do not bode well for attaining
Russia's objectives.
But,
at this point, Trump's travails can serve the Kremlin's ambitions: a
message to the world that the United States is a shambles, a message to
the Russian people that the only way to ride out the coming storm is to
stick with Putin.
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