trump poroshenko
Let me say immediately what exactly there will be no more of. There will be no miracles. None. There is no need to expect friendship or a radical change in US-Russian relations from Trump. The fact that Trump won the elections, despite the strong resistance put up by a significant part of the American political and economic elite, was already a miracle. Demanding a bigger one is tempting fate. There's no need to do this.

The new president is a man who is very, very strongly disliked by those who have formulated the US' extremely aggressive foreign policy over recent years and dragged the country directly towards military confrontation with Russia and China. Now American politicians of a different nature with different interests and ideologies have the chance to work out a different foreign policy.

This is the first time in many years that this could really be in the US' interests. No, I haven't misspoken. Trump's victory is to a certain extent a victory of the American elites, specifically those elites who have preserved at least some kind of American identity and the feeling of being Americans, not globalists. This is their victory over the supranational oligarchy and bureaucracy about whom Vladimir Putin recently spoke as the main problem of the world.

This supranational oligarchy and bureaucracy has used America as a tool for its own aims and, in a certain sense, as a cash flow. The statistics show that a significant portion of those who voted for Trump are people who feel that they have become poorer over recent years. As it turns out, there are many such people in the US. They became poorer at the same time that the supranational elite, part of which lives in the US, and its intellectual underlings all grew rich by robbing the rest of the world and the rest of America. Yesterday, this part of American society, for whom George Washington is nearer and dearer than George Soros, rose up.

We have not so bad chances of negotiating with this segment of American society represented by Trump and his entourage. We never had the slightest chance of talking with Soros or Brzezinski. But this does not mean that Russian-American friendship will suddenly bloom. The opportunity to avoid a real global war is a big step forward.

Remembering Putin's words on the situation in Syria, I think that there are no insurmountable obstacles standing in the way of negotiating with Trump and those whom he represents. Remember, at Valdai our president said that he managed to conclude a deal on Syria with Obama, but other forces in Washington disrupted the deal.

These forces have a symbol, and this symbol has a name and surname: Hillary Rodham Clinton. After Trump's victory, these forces will have serious problems, as their influence on US foreign policy will be reduced drastically. If Putin was able to negotiate with Obama, then I think that this is quite possible to do with Trump.

Finally, I, as is known, am very skeptical towards the moral and intellectual capacity of many Kiev politicians. However, it would be wrong to assume that they are all stupid. Sure, they are no Newton or Descartes, but they have some kind of instinct of self-preservation.

Trump's election has provoked real panic among Ukrainian politicians and experts which wouldn't exist if all of them were sure that the new administration in the White House will continue to feed, pay, and support them. Their instinct, in addition to information received from their US State Department advisers, apparently tells them that a huge 'betrayal' is on its way.

To understand this, I watched what Trump does in situations when he has an expensive and unprofitable project on his hands. For example, a big tower which was built and supposed to be a casino hotel with spas and upscale offices. But either customers didn't come out the money finished or the construction partners were idiots. Observing this, two things became clear.

First of all, Trump, being a good businessman, quite quickly gets rid of such unprofitable assets. If the situation seems hopeless to him, then no matter finished or unfinished, he immediately puts it up for sale.

Secondly, Trump, as befits a good businessman, can look at things realistically and sell assets at very low prices in the hope of regaining at least a part of the lost money. In the worst case, he can sell assets in small parts to get at least something out of them.

I propose that we think about what exactly this means for the future of "project Ukraine."