Blitz Bureau
MOSCOW: Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin down say it makes no odds to Moscow who wins the White House on November 5. Yet anyone watching Kremlin-guided state media’s coverage of the US election would conclude Donald Trump is strongly favoured.
According to a Reuters report published by an Indian media platform, Harris’ tendency to burst into fits of laughter, something Putin himself spoke about sarcastically last month, has featured prominently in broadcasts and state TV has played compilations of her least eloquent statements during the campaign. State TV’s main Channel One news programme this month showed video of billionaire Elon Musk and TV host Tucker Carlson denigrating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris before zooming in on what it cast as a series of stumbling performances.
By contrast, the same Channel One report portrayed Trump and running mate JD Vance as sure-footed and imbued with common sense on everything from transgender politics to immigration, but facing sinister forces as evidenced by assassination plots.
The Kremlin says the choice of who becomes the next US President is a matter exclusively for the American people and that it will work with whoever is elected. It has denied steering coverage, although some former state media employees have spoken publicly about weekly Kremlin meetings at which guidance on different issues is given.
The state media’s apparent preference for Trump may be no surprise, said the Reuters report. Trump, it said, has been far less openly supportive of Ukraine in its war against Russia than incumbent President Joe Biden or Harris, raising fears in Kyiv that it could lose its most important ally if he wins.
Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin and boasted of having a good working relationship, last week blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for helping start the war. This month he declined to confirm reports he had spoken to Putin on several occasions since leaving office in 2021, saying only: “If I did, it’s a smart thing.”
Harris by contrast has called Putin “a murderous dictator” and vowed to continue backing Ukraine.
