Putin’s Harris comments aimed to weaken US election bid, analysts say

“Any public endorsement by Moscow for a US presidential candidate will do that candidate no favours in an election,” the BBC’s Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg wrote. Anton Barbashin, editorial director of the journal Riddle Russia, quipped that this is “high level trolling.” But Putin is not the only figure in Russia to seemingly back Harris. One Russian politician scientist made the case to state-owned RIA Novosti that “Harris is more advantageous than Trump,” arguing that Trump would do more to build up America’s military strength. Tatiana Stanovaya, a leading Russia expert, told The Washington Post that Harris “represents what they call in Moscow the liberal terrorists” — particularly hard to negotiate pragmatically with.

In Kyiv, Trump’s ambiguous promises to end the war in “24 hours” and his vice-presidential pick, J.D. Vance, a harsh Ukraine critic, has made most people confident that a Harris victory would be preferable. Even so, some Ukrainians have warned that Harris could end up continuing what they see as a slow and cautious response to the Biden administration. While Trump could suddenly decide to “put an end to the incursions of Putin” and act decisively, one Ukrainian commentator wrote, whereas “Harris would not do that under any circumstances,” Some US conservatives have made the case that Trump could be tougher on Russia than Biden, with two former advisers saying that the Republican candidate could decide to ramp up pressure to force Putin to the negotiating table on favorable terms for Ukraine.

Most European countries would likely have an easier time maneuvering a Harris White House than a second Trump presidency, even if few politicians are willing to say so openly for fear of unnecessarily irking Republicans. But behind closed doors, European officials are “swooning” at the idea of a Harris presidency, the Financial Times reported. On the grassroots level, Democratic organizers in Europe have spoken of a “one in a blue moon” moment as non-US citizens reach out to volunteer to help get Harris elected. Even so, some European officials have argued that Biden, a dyed-in-the-wool Atlanticist, will likely represent the high water mark for US commitment to Europe in the foreseeable future, as both candidates look likely to look increasingly toward Asia.