By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly
MOSCOW, Dec 7 (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Sunday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to stop calling Russia a direct threat and said his new national security strategy, which portrays European powers as in decline, largely accorded with Russia’s own perceptions.
The U.S. National Security Strategy described Trump’s vision as one of “flexible realism” and argued that the U.S. should revive the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the Western Hemisphere to be Washington’s zone of influence.
The strategy, signed by Trump, also warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure”, that it was a “core” U.S. interest to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and that Washington wanted to reestablish strategic stability with Russia.
“The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin when asked about the new U.S. strategy.
Asked about the pledge in the U.S. document to end “the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance”, Peskov said it was encouraging.
But Peskov also cautioned that what he said was the U.S. “deep state” saw the world differently to Trump, who has used the term to refer to an allegedly entrenched network of U.S. officials who seek to undermine those who challenge the status quo, including Trump himself.
Critics of Trump say there is no such thing as a “deep state,” and that Trump and his allies are trafficking in a conspiracy theory to justify an executive-branch power grab.
Since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, U.S. strategies have designated Moscow as an aggressor or a threat that was trying to destabilise the post-Cold War order by force.
In comments to the state-run TASS news agency, Peskov said calling for cooperation with Moscow on strategic stability issues rather than describing Russia as a direct threat was a positive step.
Trump has often made positive and admiring comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin, prompting critics to accuse him of being soft on Moscow even though both his administrations slapped sanctions on Russia.
Senior officials from major European powers have repeatedly expressed worry that the U.S. under Trump could be turning its back on Europe, which depends on Washington for military support.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Philippa Fletcher)
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