US Election 2016: Vladimir Putin welcomes a potential ally in newly elected Donald Trump

By Robert Fox9 November 2016

Few world leaders will welcome the arrival of the Trump presidency more warmly than Vladimir Putin.

During the election campaign Donald Trump expressed his admiration for the Russian’s “strong leadership”.

Above all, the Trump White House will give Mr Putin what he wants — chaos in Nato and the broader western alliance.

Probably no successful US presidential candidate has been less committed to supporting Europe through Nato.

President-elect: Donald Trump beat rival Hillary Clinton
Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla / Staff

Mr Trump has hinted he would like America to pull back from its leadership of the body, implying the alliance was a waste of money.

Mr Putin has long depicted what he describes as the aggressive stance of Nato as the biggest threat to peace in what he likes to call “the European House”.

Now he may take the handover period in Washington as an opportunity for further Russian meddling in Ukraine, or, far more likely, the Baltic states.

Though he has been busy flexing military muscle, with displays of the new Armata tank, the deployment of an aircraft carrier to Syrian shores, and the mounting of new air defence systems in Syria and eastern Europe, he is unlikely to make a grab for new territory.

He has got too much trouble already in consolidating Crimea and securing the eastern parts of Ukraine.

The Putin Kremlin may use the uncertainty in Washington for a final assault on the rebel-held enclave of eastern Aleppo.

But for Russia there is an obvious danger. The forces of Russia’s client, Bashar al Assad, are not numerous or strong enough to hold down Syria’s largest city.

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Russia will not want its ground troops to be involved in a long-term occupation of Aleppo.

The Kremlin must hope that a Trump White House will ease western sanctions, which are having a crippling effect.

Much now depends on who Mr Trump appoints to lead his defence and security team. It is a world of which he has no first-hand experience.

He may be surprised that the old hands he turns to in the intelligence agencies and the military will warn him that China is far bigger long-term problem for his presidency than Mr Putin’s Russia.

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