Kremlin shifts narrative on Trump amid warming US‑Russia ties
Putin's administration has recommended that pro-government propaganda media "do not praise" American President Donald Trump but instead portray him as "a man who had the wisdom to respond to Russia's outstretched hand."
In light of the warming relations between Russia and the United States, the president's administration has advised pro-government propaganda media not to personally praise American President Donald Trump but to present him as "a man who had the wisdom to respond to Russia's outstretched hand," reported "Viorstka," which spoke with several sources in the Kremlin and in pro-government media.
They fear failure
"If negotiations do not lead to anything, we can always say, 'We tried, we did everything,'" explained one of the newspaper's informants.
According to the informant, any contacts between the teams of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the United States' Donald Trump should be presented in a positive context.
"We must stress in every possible way that Trump himself has been oppressed—both at home and in Europe. They put pressure on us, they put pressure on him, but we turned out to be stronger," a source explained to "Viorstka."
An employee of a large state media outlet described the new information policy as follows: "We are not making promises about the end of the ‘Special Military Operation’ (SVO), nor are we setting deadlines. The key point is that contact has been made, and we are ready to listen."
Media received specific guidelines
An employee of government television added that there were no orders to push any topics, but the president's administration ordered "balancing" Trump with statements from the Russian side. – It feels like walking a minefield—don’t overpraise, don’t underpraise. So we’re switching to a neutral information-processing mode to play it safe - said the head of one of the pro-government media outlets.
Earlier, Trump embarrassed the Kremlin with his statements about Ukraine and his harsh tone towards Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, informed Bloomberg sources.
According to them, his words "exceeded all expectations" of Moscow, which sought to impose its view of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the United States. At the same time, the highest Russian leadership fears a possible "trap" or unexpected turns from the American administration, which for now shows a willingness to make concessions.
Nevertheless, the Kremlin intends to use this situation to gain maximum benefits for Russia from any potential agreements ending the war, said a Bloomberg source.
Trump, who promised to end the war within 24 hours, held a phone conversation with Putin three weeks after the inauguration, and a week later, Russian and American delegations met in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine's participation. As a result of the negotiations, it was decided to restore the functioning of embassies and start consultations on mutual "flashpoints," and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the possibility of easing sanctions depending on Moscow's stance.
Meanwhile, Trump almost literally began repeating Kremlin propaganda narratives. He accused Zelensky of triggering the war and called him a "dictator without elections" with a support level of 4 percent, fourteen times lower than the actual result provided by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology (57 percent in February). American diplomats opposed referring to Russia as the "aggressor" in the G7 declaration and did not support the UN resolution condemning the Russian invasion on the third anniversary of the war.
