Putin’s Retrospective: 2016 without any visible leakage and attention focused to Donald Trump

World News Adina Camarasu
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The Russian President Vladimir Putin ended 2016 without any visible loss during his worst year as a President, in terms of his relations with the West and with the hope that the arrival of tycoon Donald Trump at White House will bring an improvement in the diplomatic dialogue between Moscow and Washington.

In 2016, Kremlin leader had to cope not only with the extended sanctions against his country for Moscow’s role in the Ukrainian crisis, but also against allegations of war crimes in Syria, where Russia supports the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

And, as this would not be enough, Washington multiplied its allegations regarding the Russian involvement in the cyber attacks during the US presidential campaign, in favor of Donald Trump, whose election as president would have satisfied Moscow’s interests.

White House’s reaction came soon: it planned a large-scale cyber attack against Russia, which will be launched at the most appropriate time, revealed some US intelligence sources quoted by EFE.

However, the ending of Barack Obama’s mandate makes the threat seem no longer worrying and Moscow underlined that it expected, along with the coming of a new president in the White House, the improving of the dialogue between the two countries, although Russian authorities insisted that this process will be neither easy nor quick.

An eloquent proof the Russian political class’ mood was represented by the applause with which the Duma (Russian parliament’s lower chamber) received the news of Trump’s victory.

Some deputies, such as the Liberal Democrat leader (ultranationalist), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, celebrated with champagne the electoral triumph of the controversial American billionaire.

This is because Moscow is believed that Trump will focus primarily on domestic politics of the US, which could translate into multiple benefits for Russia.

After the initial euphoria caused by the Republican candidate’s victory, the Kremlin has called for caution and patience, to first see how the Presidential team will look like.

Domestically, the economic difficulties caused by falling oil prices and Western sanctions did not seem to affect Putin’s popularity.

According to a recent study conducted by the Ministry of Economy in Russia, Western sanctions will be long term and the country shall prepare for 20 years of economic stagnation.

‘Our macroeconomic system resembles a patient who had a heart attack’, said Sergei Glaziev, Putin’s adviser.

However, Putin enjoys the support of his country, that Western politicians do not even dare to dream of: around 70%, according to various polls.