Exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar told CNN this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin views President Donald Trump as a “soul mate” who shares his affinity for a “pragmatic” form of “brutal capitalism” which is now possible because the American people don’t “believe in liberal democracy” anymore.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour spoke with Zygar about Putin and Trump as the war in Ukraine continues and Trump is trying to secure a cease fire. Those efforts included a Moscow visit by Trump’s special envoy that resulted in an outburst of fury against the press from the president on Saturday.
Speaking with Amanpour, Zygar said that the people of Russia see the United States as following in the doomed footsteps of the Soviet Union, which collapsed after the people lost faith in communist ideology.
“I think Vladimir Putin has been watching Donald Trump for so many years and seeing him as some kind of a soulmate, I guess, because both of them share the same perception, the same very cynical and non-ideological perception of the modern world,” he said. “What I’m hearing from Moscow right now. They feel that that’s the end of the United States as they used to be.”
Zygar said that Russians relate the situation to the fall of the USSR, “because Soviet Union was the state based on ideology, and since the moment people stop
Amanpour interrupted to ask, “But in reverse?” and Zygar agreed, although it was clear from context and the rest of his comment that he was not saying it was a reverse “process” even if it is a reverse outcome. He was suggesting that the USSR fell when its people stopped believing in the underlying ideology, and that is also what he’s saying about the United States. “A lot of Americans don’t seem to believe in liberal democracy,” he said.
Amanpour was using the word “reverse” in the sense of suggesting that, while the USSR was abandoning totalitarianism, the U.S. is supposedly adopting it.
Zygar agreed with Amanpour’s take, saying “Vladimir Putin is practicing this very pragmatic form of brutal capitalism without human face, without paying attention to human rights or any kind of values. And we are… they think that that’s the same approach that is going to be the new ideology of Trump’s America.”
AMANPOUR: So here you are in the United States, and I have been struck by your writing about the election and about the war, Russia -Ukraine. You’ve been saying that Trump’s election is something that Russia has been embracing even before this dust
-up with Ukraine. Why? ZYGAR: You know, I think Vladimir Putin has been watching Donald Trump for so many years and seeing him as some kind of a soul mate, I guess, because both of them share the same perception, the same very cynical and non -ideological perception of the modern world. And I will tell you even more, from what I’m hearing from Moscow right now. They feel that that’s the end of the United States as they used to be. AMANPOUR: As the leader of the world? ZYGAR: As the stronghold of liberal democracy. And they compare it to the collapse of Soviet Union. Because Soviet Union was the state based on ideology, and since the moment people start believing in communism, soviet Union was doomed to collapse. And that’s some kind of the same process we’re watching right now. AMANPOUR: But in reverse? ZYGAR: In reverse. A lot of Americans don’t seem to believe in liberal democracy. And Vladimir Putin is practicing this very pragmatic form of brutal capitalism without human face, without paying attention to human rights or any kind of values. And we are… they think that that’s the same approach that is going to be the new ideology of Trump’s America.
Watch the clip above via CNN.