‘There is a civil society in Russia that is trying to resist’ – Technologist

Andrei Kolesnikov is a political scientist and columnist for the Russian version of Novaya Gazeta, one of the few Russian media outlets that have stayed critical of the Kremlin. He lives and works in Russia.

For Vladimir Putin, who has denied having spoken by phone with Donald Trump two days after the US election, is his ‘friend’s’ return to the White House good news?

Vladimir Putin wants to show that he is not dependent on Donald Trump. That’s why he has denied the very existence of this telephone conversation, which allegedly took place on November 7. It’s also why, that same day, he didn’t mention the president-elect during the first three hours of his speech at a major conference in Russia. The Kremlin leader has convinced himself that he has to demonstrate his independence from American influence.

To his audience in Russia, he wants to portray himself as the czar of the world: Trump is important, but he is even more important. He doesn’t care about the rest – this is the state of mind he wants to display. In the US, the message is the same: “If you want to suggest a proposal for peace in Ukraine, you can send it to me; I’ll be pleased to receive you; but I’m the one who decides when and how I should behave.”

For him, Trump’s election is both good and bad news. On the one hand, he feels close to the president-elect and his conservative, conspiracy-minded positions. However, on the other, Trump’s unpredictability represents a problem for him, as it could undermine Moscow’s rhetoric and policy toward Washington. The Kremlin wants to maintain a Cold War climate. Trump’s outstretched hand upsets this tactic. Nobody opened the champagne in the Kremlin on November 5 [the US presidential election date]. And I very much doubt that Putin will agree to meet Trump soon after his inauguration, on January 20 [2025], for a grand public show of reconciliation. Initially, the resumption of contact will take place in an informal way, behind the scenes. Trump and his new administration could also rapidly reduce aid to Kyiv, but this remains uncertain and the effects are difficult to measure.

At the BRICS summit, held in the Russian city of Kazan from October 22-24, Putin presented himself as the leader of the new anti-Western world. Is this a way of getting out of his international isolation?

Putin sees himself as a man with a mission. And his mission, on the world stage, consists of being the leader of the global South and the global East, of all those countries that are opposed to Western domination. As Russia’s czar, he sees himself as the world’s czar! He wants an alternative to the Western system set up after 1945 [at the end of the Second World War] and, above all, after [the fall of the Berlin Wall in] 1989. Together with his Chinese friend, [President] Xi Jinping, he will be one of its chief architects. In his vision, this new world will be attractive to emerging countries.

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