Putin might not be too unhappy if Joe Biden becomes the next American president, here's why
It has been witnessed more than once in the past that media outlets in the US have alleged that President Donald Trump is soft on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, even on matters that are detrimental to America’s interests. Especially after the bombshell allegations regarding the 2016 presidential election that Russia interfered in the US internal affairs and Trump colluded with the Russians, the ghost has come back to haunt the American mind more often.
Speculations are also rife this time and US intelligence agencies have given inputs that countries like Russia, China and Iran have targeted this year’s election though with differing aims. While it has been said that Russia wants Trump to win the battle against Democrat Joe Biden, the Chinese and Iranians are suspected more to work against the incumbent.
The common perception is that the Kremlin would prefer Biden less over Trump because under the Democratic administration, Washington is expected to impose fresh economic sanctions on Moscow. This is a viewpoint that pro-Kremlin experts, senior officials and executives of Russia’s state-owned bodies believe and even Russia’s few remaining independent media outlets are convinced about the same, a piece in Foreign Policy said on Tuesday, November 3.
There are people in the Russian govt with more nuanced views on Biden
But that is not the entire story, according to the FP article. According to the piece penned by Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center: “A more nuanced view on Biden is held by some people working on US issues in the Russian government. A president who is not tainted by suspicion of being a Russian asset—and who knows how to organize a normal process for national security discussions—will be able to restore some guardrails to the US-Russia relationship and prevent further deterioration, those people argue.”
According to the author, a new president in Biden would be able to focus less on Russia because he would be more engaged with domestic issues in the post-Trump period and China. But a new administration could be keen to retain some aspects of the arms-control regime and discuss competition in cyberspace. Gabuev also argued that much will depend on who Biden picks as his secretary of state and national security advisor and in other positions of the bureaucracy that deal with Russia.
Despite the black-and-white conclusions, even Trump’s America has had its problems with Russia. The incumbent has in the past had issues with the Kremlin despite his personal admiration for Putin and on occasions, Russia, too, has felt being let down by the current administration. According to Gabuev: “After US-Russian relations nearly hit rock bottom on Trump’s watch, nobody in Russia believes that four more years of Trump could be good for Moscow… For the Kremlin, schadenfreude (pleasure) over the gradual demise of Pax Americana would simply sugarcoat the risks and downsides of Trump remaining in the White House.”