Putin Praises Trump for Working to Thaw U.S.-Russia Tensions

THE NEW YORK TIMES: “The first contacts with the new American administration give us some hope,” the Russian president said in televised comments on Thursday.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia lauded the Trump administration on Thursday for its efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin.

Speaking in Moscow at the annual meeting of Russia’s intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, Mr. Putin praised the new U.S. administration for “pragmatism, a realistic worldview” and “discarding many stereotypes, so-called ‘rules’ and messianic, ideological clichés of their predecessors.”

And he blamed Joe Biden, the former president, for causing a crisis in the “entire system of international relations.”

“The first contacts with the new American administration give us some hope,” he said in televised comments. “There is a mutual willingness to work on restoring the relations and gradually tackle the colossal amount of the systemic and strategic problems in the global architecture that had piled up.”

Mr. Putin’s comments extended a pattern of praise for the new American president as Russia looks to draw the United States into its camp and against Ukraine and Europe. The remarks follow an unexpected thaw between Moscow and Washington after more than a decade of strife ignited by the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine that started with the largely bloodless annexation of Crimea in 2014.

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In a head-spinning shift of relations that followed a phone call between Mr. Putin and President Trump, top U.S. and Russian officials sat down for talks in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, last week for their first negotiations since before the Russian invasion. As the first concrete step to demonstrate good will by both sides, they agreed to restore diplomatic staffing in both countries, which has been at skeletal levels because of several rounds of mutual expulsions and restrictions. » | Nataliya Vasilyeva | Thursday, February 27, 2025

Warsi: Britons More Worldly Than Americans

Baroness Warsi, Minister for Faith

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: America is not as “sophisticated” as Britain in understanding international relations, Baroness Warsi says

America is not as “sophisticated” as Britain in understanding international relations, Baroness Warsi said today.

The minister for faith, on a visit to America, also said the conservative Fox News channel needed training on “religious literacy”.

The blunt remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC caused a flutter on social media networks after being picked up by the liberal Huffington Post website.

“I think Britain is quite uniquely sophisticated in its understanding of the world in a way the US is not,” she said.

“That comes from much of our own history and much of our connection.” » | Peter Foster, in Washington | Friday, November 15, 2013