Donald Trump’s nascent administration is taking a beating from the press for its coziness with Russia, especially after the announcement of his pick for Secretary of State.
And now nerves are a little on edge and Russian President Vladimir Putin is praising the new cabinet as a Dream Team.
Here’s more from Newsmax:
With two decades of deal-making in Russia’s vital oil industry under his belt, Rex Tillerson is Vladimir Putin’s kind of man.
The Exxon Mobil Corp. chief is also in Donald Trump’s sights for secretary of state, fueling optimism in Moscow that a longed-for thaw in relations is near.
If nominated and confirmed, Tillerson would join another supporter of closer cooperation with Russia at the top of America’s policy-making apparatus, Michael Flynn, the president-elect’s national security adviser. Add in Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, retired General James Mattis, who’s viewed in Moscow as more pragmatic than his predecessors, and the Kremlin couldn’t ask for much more, according to Sergei Markov, a consultant to Putin’s staff.
“This is a fantastic team,” Markov said by phone from the Russian capital on Sunday. “These are people that Russia can do business with.”
Russia is banking on better relations with the incoming Trump administration to help it end a stretch of international isolation and emerge from its longest recession in two decades. The downturn was triggered by a collapse in oil prices and made worse by the sanctions the U.S. and EU imposed over Putin’s support for the insurgency in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.
