From Russia with love – Kremlin welcomes US softer tone
The Kremlin welcomed the move by US President Donald Trump’s administration to review its national security strategy and stop calling Russia a “direct threat”.
Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the move in statements published by the TASS news agency on Sunday.
Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, US strategies have identified Moscow as a major threat.
But the updated US policy released on Friday adopted a softer tone, calling for limited cooperation.
In his statement to the state news agency, Peskov said that in the updated strategy, statements describing Russia as a direct threat were removed and instead called for cooperation with Moscow on strategic stability issues.
“We considered this a positive step,” he said, adding that Moscow would examine the document closely before drawing broader conclusions.
“We definitely need to look at this more closely and analyze it,” Peskov was quoted as saying. He was recorded as saying.
According to the document, the 29-page new strategy lays out Trump’s foreign policy vision as “flexible realism” and says that US policy will be guided, above all, by “what works for America.”
The document said Washington would seek a rapid resolution to the conflict in Ukraine and aim to restore “strategic stability” with Moscow while Russia’s actions in Ukraine remain a central security concern.
The strategy was announced amid a pause in the US peace initiative, with Washington presenting a proposal endorsing Russia’s main demands in the nearly four-year war.
Trump’s frequent positive and admiring comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin have led critics to accuse him of being soft on Moscow even as his administration maintains sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
European allies who rely on U.S. military support to deter Russia have watched this shift closely and expressed concern that softer U.S. language could undermine efforts to confront Moscow as the war in Ukraine continues.
