President Trump Congratulates Vladimir Putin on Election Victory in Unexpected Impromptu Call
The US president has congratulated Vladimir Putin on a sweeping victory in the presidential election. The Kremlin press service says that when Donald Trump called the Russian leader, the heads of state discussed the joint struggle against international terrorism, the situation in Syria, the Ukrainian crisis and the situation on the Korean peninsula. The Kremlin noted that "in general, the conversation was constructive, businesslike, focusing on overcoming the festering problems in the Russian-US relations. The presidents of the two countries agreed "to further develop bilateral contacts in light of the changes in leadership at the US Department of State." Special attention is paid to preparing a summit. The presidential election remains one of the main topics of the world politics.
Mikhail Antonov has the details.
The world reaction to the Russian presidential election results is similar to the desire of foreigners to understand the mysterious Russian soul. This research always takes a mixed form of honest attempts to figure things out, armchair analysis, outright rudeness.
Vladimir Putin's victory did not come as a surprise to the US administration, according to Donald Trump's spokesman Hogan Gidley. "So a call to Moscow was not planned," he said, puzzling the journalists. However, this gaffe was corrected, and Trump called Vladimir Putin today to congratulate him.
Donald Trump: "I held a phone conversation with Vladimir Putin and congratulated him on the victory at the election. Our conversation also covered our possible meeting in the near future. So we'll be able to discuss the arms race. As you know, Putin said that being dragged into an arms race is bad. It was one of his first statements right after the election. I hope we'll soon discuss the arms race which is spinning out of control. But we'll never let anyone have anything as powerful as we are. I think our meeting will take place soon".
However, the expected outcome of the election in Russia was ignored by London. Although, it was the UK that is generally believed to have contributed a lot of people lining up to polling stations around the world. The Western media explain that Russia feels like a beleaguered fortress which needs a strong commander and general mobilization.
www.corriere.it:
"Vladimir Putin won by a large margin which confirmed the legitimacy of his long rule".
Several videos are broadcast by news channels, this is all they have to show violations. Even Western commentators are surprised at this manipulation.
- Christophe, Putin gets 3/4 of votes in this election, is it a falsification?
- Absolutely, and therefore I must say that the attempts at manipulating the elections were absolutely absurd as Putin does not really need it.
Spiegel reports that 33,799 Russian citizens came to the polls in Germany. It's by a half more than in 2012. Frankenpost jokingly says that they did it even without vodka. Here Putin scored almost 83%. Sobchak holds the second place in Germany with 6.84%.
Many speculate on the chances of Putin's rivals. But Spiegel admits that Russian liberal opposition won't fetch more than 2%. And the reason is not only the national pride restored by Putin. Bourgeoisie's mouthpiece, The Wall Street Journal, shares this point with the Cuban Communist Granma.
"Putin's approval rating prior to the election exceeded 80%. It has been growing along with the colossally improving living standards over the past 20 years".
"The key to Putin's success is that he reached political, economic and socially sustainable development in Russia".
The leaders of Cuba, Serbia, China, India, Iran, and Syria were the first to congratulate Putin on the victory, or as the Financial Times puts it, the triumph. The Israeli PM and the French president called as well. The Kremlin got a telegram of congratulations from Berlin in the evening.
"Honorable Mr. President, I wholeheartedly congratulate you on being re-elected as President of the Russian Federation".
Heiko Maas, German Foreign Minister: "We expect Russia to remain a difficult partner for Germany, but Russia also needs to address global international conflicts, and therefore we aim to maintain the dialogue between our countries".
That was the first statement by the new Foreign Minister Heiko Maas about Russia. He also said that these elections, in which 3/4 of voters chose Putin, cannot be considered an "honest political competition".
Paradoxes of democracy. Obviously, Mr. Maas considers it honest when 2/3 of Germans do not want Angela Merkel's 4th term, but she becomes chancellor again.
Mikhail Antonov, Alexander Korystelev, and Andrey Putra for Vesti from Germany.