The Russian president offered his greetings to Donald Trump but not Barack Obama. Our thin-skinned president won’t like this. That’s not the entire story however.
CNN is very concerned that on the heels of new sanctions enforced by the Obama administration, Russian President Vladimir Putin has released his annual New Year’s statement to the international community without mentioning Barack Obama. CNN noted that Putin repeatedly “sidestepped” President Obama in the statement, instead offering his congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump.
This will drive the left nuts but I can sympathize with Putin on this. Many in this country wouldn’t give a New Year’s greeting to Barack Obama.
CNN is trying to make this into a significant event. They want it to appear as if Trump and Putin have a covert relationship, but Putin didn’t totally ignore our lame duck president. He conveyed his seasonal greetings to Obama, his family and the American people in a separate statement earlier Friday.
Putin expressed hope that after Trump is sworn in as US President on January 20, the two countries, “acting in a constructive and pragmatic manner, will be able to take real steps to restore the mechanisms of bilateral cooperation in various areas and take their interaction in the international arena to a whole new level.”
“Major global and regional challenges that our countries have confronted in recent years clearly confirm that Russia-US relations are an important factor in ensuring stability and security in the modern world,” reads Putin’s direct message to Trump, released by the Kremlin on Friday.
If there is any exchange of dialogue between Putin and Trump, it’s looked upon with suspicion.
Putin congratulated every world leader, not simply Trump.
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Putin also congratulated Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Theresa May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among others.
Former heads of state and politicians, including former US Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, also received greetings from the Russian President.
Obama, however, was not mentioned in this year’s message.
Putin also congratulated Pope Francis, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General-elect Antonio Guterres, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.
Here’s Putin’s statement on Trump:
Vladimir Putin congratulated US President-elect Donald Trump on Christmas and the New Year. In his message of greetings, the Russian President expressed hope that after Donald Trump is sworn in as US president, the two states, acting in a constructive and pragmatic manner, will be able to take real steps to restore the mechanisms of bilateral cooperation in various areas and take their interaction in the international arena to a whole new level. “Major global and regional challenges that our countries have confronted in recent years clearly confirm that Russia-US relations are an important factor in ensuring stability and security in the modern world,” reads the message sent to Donald Trump.
