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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
U.S. President Donald Trump is not a supporter of Russia, but regards Moscow as an important factor in deterring China. This, according to former Ukrainian ambassador to the United States Olga Stefanishyna, largely explains his desire to build relations with the Kremlin. As Glavkom reports, the diplomat expressed this view in an interview with Radio Svoboda.
"For Trump, Russia is, in his worldview, the main factor of deterrence against rising China. In other words, he believes that a weak Russia strengthens China," Stefanishyna said.
According to her, the American president operates on the assumption that a rapprochement between Washington and Moscow and the formation of a certain system of relations between them could push Russia away from China. Stefanishyna noted that such logic is present in the approaches of Trump’s team and the American administration.
At the same time, attempts by the United States to build a strategic dialogue with Russia, in the diplomat’s assessment, did not yield results.
"All attempts to build a strategic dialogue, they ended in a complete fiasco. The dialogue between Russia and the United States at the institutional level ended in a complete fiasco," she noted.
Stefanishyna emphasized that despite Trump’s complimentary statements about Russia, it would be wrong to consider him a Moscow ally.
"This is just because he is not on Russia’s side, although we often hear such complimentary remarks," said the former ambassador.
At the same time, Trump, according to her, genuinely seeks to end Russia’s war against Ukraine as quickly as possible. He believes he can find a compromise through negotiations.
"He is definitely intent on ending the war, to stop it. Therefore, he believes he can find that golden middle ground, as a messiah, in negotiations," Stefanishyna said.
However, at present these efforts have not yielded the expected result. According to the diplomat, despite lengthy attempts by Trump to secure an end to the war, his approach has not yet worked.
Earlier, former Ukrainian ambassador to the United States Olga Stefanishina spoke about the nicknames that American negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Victoff received in Russian political circles. According to her, Russians refer to Trump’s representatives as "Yatzyok" and "Vitokh."
Vitkoff and Kushner first arrived in Ukraine 6 September. Their visit followed the talks in Moscow, where Trump’s representatives spoke with Putin for more than three hours.
As a reminder, after the talks Vitkoff spoke of "substantial progress" and reported progress in planning additional trilateral negotiations. Kushner, for his part, said that Trump had instructed his representatives to formulate a package of proposals to end the war.
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