RIA Novosti: Trump not pro-Russian – Moscow spokeswoman

(RIA Novosti – January 20, 2017)

Donald Trump, who is about to become the president of the United States, is not pro-Russian, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

“There are no pro-Russian candidates there, we have never said that we support Donald Trump, or that we do not support him, there has never been such a thing,” Maria Zakharova said.

“There has been no pro-Russian candidate, I think this is clear,” but “there was a candidate with a clearly-expressed Russophobe attitude. If you do not like [the word] Russophobe let’s say anti-Russian attitude. This was a different story. A story of one candidate clearly expressing anti-Russian views, and some, possibly, thought against that background that the other candidate would be pro-Russian. That was not the case,” she said.

“What Mr Trump has said clearly is that in international relations, in the United States’ foreign policy he intends to prioritise the fight against international terrorism. This gives certain hope, because it indeed is a challenge, a threat that we all are facing,” she added.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied speculation that the Kremlin strongly favoured Trump over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Earlier today Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said about Trump: “This is not our man, this is America’s man.”