Analysts: Trump Victory Forces Europe's Hand on Russia Policy: Europe must start making its own decisions on confronting Russian aggression following the shock victory of Donald Trump in the US
presidential elections, a European analyst has warned.
“As far as we know, Donald Trump has a very different view of Russia to Barack Obama and has been calling Vladimir Putin reliable,” said Roberto Menotti, an analyst at the Aspen Institute in Rome.
“This is a big challenge for Europe, which does not have a coherent Russia policy beyond its thin agreement on sanctions. With Trump in
office it will be more necessary to quickly come up with a more consistent, common position,” he said.
“We would have expected Hilary Clinton to set the framework, but with Trump it could take time for a framework to emerge, so we need to be clear in a short time about what we want,” he added.
Menotti said that despite Trump's differences with Obama, if he now seeks to reduce US interventionism around the world, he would be
following a policy started by the outgoing president.
