Let’s start with Trump: Since his first presidential campaign, the Republican candidate has enjoyed a certain level of admiration from Moscow. More precisely, Russian President Vladimir Putin admires Trump’s admiration of, well, Putin.
“Putin is a short, vain man,” says Nina Khrushcheva, a professor at The New School in New York and the great-granddaughter of former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
“The Kremlin likes the fact that the tall, rich Trump is in absolute awe of Putin,” she added. “That gives Putin the upper hand.”
And while Trump’s strongman persona and rich-man, fake-tan aesthetics may be off-putting to puritans in Western Europe, the Russian elite is no stranger to ostentatious displays of wealth nor, to put it mildly, to аutocratic tendencies in their politicians.
Trump’s conspiratorial thinking also resonates with a deep-seated belief among many Russians, fueled by their politicians and propaganda, that ordinary Americans are being held hostage by a deep state.
The biggest attraction for the Kremlin when it comes to Trump, of course, is his stance on Ukraine. The Republican nominee has pledged to end the war in one day, presumably by forcing Kyiv to make territorial concessions. His running mate JD Vance is a fierce critic of giving Ukraine more aid.
