Russia praises Trump, scolds Europe for being crucible of war

MOSCOW: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov Sunday praised President Trump's "common sense" aim to end the war in Ukraine, but accused European powers which have rallied around Kyiv of seeking to prolong the conflict. Lavrov said the US still wanted to be the world's most powerful country and that Washington and Moscow would never see eye to eye on everything, but they had agreed to be pragmatic when interests coincided.

Lavrov said the model of US-China relationship was the one that should be built between Russia and the US to do a lot of "mutually beneficial things" without allowing disagreements to collapse into war. "Donald Trump is a pragmatist," Lavrov told Russian military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. "His slogan is common sense. It means, as everyone can see, a shift to a different way of doing things."

"But the goal is still MAGA," Lavrov said. "This gives a lively, human character to politics. That's why it's interesting to work with him."

Lavrov criticised Europe, saying for the past 500 years it had been the crucible of "all the tragedies of the world" including colonisation, wars, crusaders, Crimean War, Napoleon Bonaparte, WWI and Hitler. He dismissed European ideas for sending in a contingent of European peacekeepers, and said Russia did not like the idea of Europeans propping up Zelensky.

(This is a Reuters story)