Kremlin denounces US President Donald Trump’s ‘imperialist’ national security strategy
The report did not accuse Moscow of meddling in the 2016 US election, but it reflected a broader view that Russia undermines American interests
The Kremlin dismissed US President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy as imperialist on Tuesday, but welcomed Washington’s willingness to cooperate in some areas.
A day earlier, Trump’s administration had unveiled a security paper – based on the president’s ‘America First’ push – that accused Russia of interfering in other countries’ internal affairs.
“A quick read of the parts of the strategy that mention our country one way or another … [shows] an imperialist character,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The paper, he added also showed “an unwillingness to give up the idea of a unipolar world, moreover, an insistent unwillingness, disregard for a multipolar world”.
Trump’s strategy paper did not include specific accusations from US security agencies that Moscow meddled in the 2016 US election. But it reflected a broader view long held by US diplomats that Russia actively undermines American interests at home and abroad.
“We cannot agree with an attitude that sees our country as a threat to the United States,” Peskov said. “At the same time, there are some modestly positive aspects, in particular, the readiness to cooperate in areas that correspond to American interests.”
Trump has frequently spoken of wanting to improve relations with President Vladimir Putin, even though Russia has frustrated US policy in Syria and Ukraine and done little to help Washington in its stand-off with North Korea.
In a speech laying out his strategy on Monday, Trump said he had received a call from Putin a day earlier to thank him for providing US intelligence that helped thwart a bomb attack in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.
A US Justice Department investigation is looking into whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russia, something that Moscow and Trump both deny.
