Putin Unlike Biden Focused on Unifying People - Ex-US Official on Election Results
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Vladimir Putin who has claimed a landslide victory in the Russian presidential vote is focused on unifying his country and its people, unlike his US counterpart, Joe Biden, which also explains a record turnout, former US Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts told Sputnik.
"The election turnout is high in Russia because Putin, like Ronald Reagan and unlike Biden, is a leader who focuses on unifying the country," Roberts said. "From a Russian national perspective, there is little, if anything, about which to disagree with Putin."
Roberts added that Putin was one of a few leaders who was not using his office for personal gain.
"His recent address to the Russian people shows his concern as well as the active measures he is implementing to support families and soldiers," Roberts said. "It is rare for a country to have a leader who is not trying to survive being in office or using the office for his personal benefit."
US-Russia Relations Have No Prospects During Putin’s Next Term
Roberts added that the US-Russia ties have no prospects during the next term of incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"There is no hope for US-Russian relations … The budget and power of the US military-security complex, a powerful lobby encompassing the armaments industry, the Congress elected by campaign contributions, and the CIA and FBI, depends on having an enemy. Russia is the enemy of choice," Roberts said. "Americans were trained by decades of the Cold War that there is a "Russian threat."
United States is bent on portraying Russia as enemy unless it bows to US hegemony
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 18, 2024
The only way Russia may be welcomed by the West into global community and allowed to pursue “an active and engaged role in global affairs” involves giving up any interests “that run counter to… pic.twitter.com/OvjElkIMio
Another reason why there is no hope for normalization of Washington-Moscow relations, he said, is that US foreign policy in the Middle East is controlled by the Israel lobby.
"Israel's interests in the Middle East differ completely from Russia's interests," he said. "Israel's interest is the destruction of Iran, which would open a pathway for CIA ‘jihadis’ to flow into the Russian Federation and the former Central Asian provinces of the Soviet Union. Instead of one Ukraine, there would be many."
Roberts went on to note that Putin has the concept of good and evil. "He is learning that in the West he faces evil. The Russian Church sees it as well and supports him," he concluded.
🗳🇷🇺 Updated results of vote counting pic.twitter.com/mu96Id16Vj
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 18, 2024
Russian People Realize They Are Facing Threat Emanating From the US
"Some Russians are still influenced by the American propaganda from ‘Voice of America’ and ‘Radio Free Europe’ during the Cold War of the 20th century," Roberts said. "But as the lack of political support for Alexei Navalny demonstrated, the Russian people understand that they face a threat from Washington's empire, the response to which requires national unity."
Meanwhile in the United States, Roberts emphasized, the Democrats and the corporations have the borders wide open in order to displace higher cost American employees and Republican voters.
"Unity in America and throughout the Western World has been destroyed by identity politics. In the Western world no government represents the ethnic citizens," he said. "Governments only represent the elite ruling interests. President Trump tried to change that, and we have seen what happened to him."
