How Trump's policies have helped Russia and furthered Putin's goals - WaPo

President Donald Trump’s pivot toward Russia, through a series of concessions and policy changes coupled with threats against Washington’s traditional allies, is ushering in a world order more amenable to Moscow, according to Russian analysts. Trump’s talk of taking over the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state and getting Greenland “one way or another” appears to be rupturing the post-World War II order in favor of a world without constraints on territorial expansion by force — and one closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s view.

Vladislav Surkov, a former deputy premier who helped neuter Russia’s democracy and engineer the invasions of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, told French magazine L’Express. Peace negotiations, he said, will deliver Russia’s goal: Ukraine’s defeat through either war or diplomacy, and its partition “into natural parts.” The Russian world, he continued, has no borders and “we will expand in all directions, as God wills, and as far as our resources allow.” Trump’s policy is “beneficial to Russia,” analyst Mikhail Yemelyanov wrote in the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. “Trump is ready to make serious concessions to Russia without demanding reciprocal steps.” The multipolar world “has already arrived. And Trump is already living in it,” he added.

Here are the major shifts by the Trump administration that benefit Russia:

Concessions on Ukraine peace talks
Even before peace talks began, the Trump administration publicly rejected key demands from Kyiv, including NATO membership and keeping conquered Ukrainian territory on the negotiating table. In contentious comments that suggested tacit U.S. acceptance that Russia has legitimate claims on Ukrainian territory, Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff said five regions annexed by Moscow were part of Russia, and “this has always been the issue.” Russia, he said, has “reclaimed them.”

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End of war crimes inquiries
Putin was indicted for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2023 over the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children. But the U.S. State Department this month halted funding for a three-year project by the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab to trace the fates of thousands of abducted children. It also barred any evidence from being sent to the court. Yale’s work had contributed to six ICC indictments against Russian officials, including Putin.

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Cuts to U.S. soft power
For years, the Kremlin has bitterly opposed the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America. The Trump administration is now working to eliminate all of them or slash their funding and staff. The organizations have been major tools of American soft power, promoting democratic values, countering autocrats, presenting accurate reporting in regions where news is censored, and helping vulnerable populations.

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Tensions with allies
One of Putin’s key strategic goals during his quarter-century in power has been to weaken NATO and divide the U.S. from Europe, but Trump seems to have hit the fast-forward button.

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The apparent hostility of Vance and Hegseth toward Europe surfaced in a group chat on Signal by U.S. security officials that accidentally included a journalist from the Atlantic. In the chat, which discussed military planning for a U.S. assault on Houthi militants in Yemen, an official believed to be Vance opposed the strikes because Houthi attacks in the Red Sea most affect European shipping, posting, “I just hate bailing Europe out again.” An official believed to be Hegseth responded, “VP, I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It’s PATHETIC.”

https://wapo.st/4joT3F1

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