Trump’s Iran attack sparks calls in Russia to abandon Ukraine talks

When US President Donald Trump returned ⁠to the White House last year, some Russian hardliners were cautiously optimistic, hoping his unpredictability ⁠and transactional nature might benefit Moscow on Ukraine.

But his attack on Iran means many now see him as a growing threat to Russia itself and are questioning if Trump is the pragmatic, potentially pro-Moscow strongman ready to deal in realpolitik that they thought he was.

Some hawks are publicly demanding that Moscow abandon US-brokered peace talks with Ukraine and double down on fighting there instead, arguing that the US-Iran nuclear talks which preceded the US-Israeli air war were a cynical ploy which showed Washington cannot be trusted.

“The unprincipled United States is a threat to the entire world,” said nationalist tycoon Konstantin ‌Malofeyev, who is married to a top Kremlin official. “This is the United States we are trying to negotiate with regarding Ukraine. Yes, it wants a weak Europe. But it also wants a weak Russia.”

Boris Rozhin, an influential war blogger who goes by the moniker, “Colonel Cassad” and has nearly 800,000 followers on the Telegram app, said Trump was a monster, driven mad by impunity.

“To seriously count on any agreements or deals with it (the monster) is either foolishness or treason,” opined Rozhin.