Putin Aide Takes Time To Troll Trump Over US Election

MINSK, BELARUS - NOVEMBER 23: (RUSSIA OUT) Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev seen during the SCTO Summit on November 23, 2023, in Minsk, Belarus. Presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzst... MINSK, BELARUS - NOVEMBER 23: (RUSSIA OUT) Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev seen during the SCTO Summit on November 23, 2023, in Minsk, Belarus. Presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan gathered for the Collective Security Council Treaty Organization (CSTO) Summit in Minsk. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A top Kremlin aide took time this week to slyly poke at Donald Trump, his domestic political foes, and instances of Russian interference in U.S. elections.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant, Putin aide and former Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev warned Trump about the “obligations” that come with his election.

The interview was supposedly about Russia’s status as an “oceanic” power. But in the first question, the reporter asked Patrushev to offer his “evaluation” of the presidential elections.

“Does the incoming change of power in the U.S. carry any positive changes for Russia?” the reporter asked.

“To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations,” Patrushev replied. “And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”

Patrushev is known for being a relative hardliner in Putin’s circle. Like the Russian leader, he’s a former KGB agent from Leningrad. Putin reportedly called him his “good comrade” before ascending to the Russian presidency in 1999, but demoted him last summer to the position of aide in charge of shipbuilding.

Throughout, Patrushev has chimed in to the media with bizarre statements. In 2021, he accused western elites of using the “hypocritical slogans of the fight for equality” to mask their real goal: “legalizing marriage with animals” and labeling mothers and fathers “parent number one and two.”

Patrushev stayed closer to Earth in the Monday interview with Kommersant. After the remark about Trump’s obligations, he added that the President-elect had persuaded voters to go “against the destructive external and internal policies that the current U.S. administration was conducting.”

“But the political campaign has concluded, and in January 2025 the time for concrete acts of the president-elect will come,” Patrushev said. “It’s known that campaign promises in the U.S. often can diverge from the actions that result.”

It’s a different kind of trolling that plays on a bizarre meta-irony. Patrushev knows how making these remarks in the interview neither proves nor suggests anything about supposed Russian collusion; rather, it’s a kind of trolling that relies on the irony of everyone knowing the history of Russian interference in U.S. elections and the scandal it provoked around Trump.

The next section of the interview reads more like a script than it does a conversation. The reporter took Patrushev’s response as an opportunity to observe that “many are in doubt about [Trump]’s security,” largely because of the “influence and pressure” that the “deep state” have brought to bear on him.

That teed up a nice, gray area for Patrushev to dive into: “You have touched on the real question,” he pronounced, before referencing the two attempted assassinations against Trump during the campaign.

Patrushev then ran through the history of assassination attempts against U.S. presidents and candidates: it’s happened “more than 20 times,” he said, with four Presidents having been killed by assassins.

“So it is extremely important for the U.S. special services not to allow a repeat of similar cases,” he remarked.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for jeffs jeffs says:

    “Putin reportedly called him [Patrushev] his “good comrade” before ascending to the Russian presidency in 1999, but demoted him last summer to the position of aide in charge of shipbuilding.”

    Edit: s/b “…in charge of shitposting.”

    I’d love to see this guy needle Trump for his entire time in office.

  2. Hopefully the FSM will grant us that time being short.

  3. Avatar for Mingus Mingus says:

    Speaking of trolling Trump, why no mention of Russian state TV showing nudes of Melania as the announcers are full of mirth?

    They made him a “cu*k.”

  4. Avatar for reggid reggid says:

    Trump’s handlers just reminding him that they own him. It’s passed off as a “joke” for the very reason that it’s not.

  5. Another foreign word, (in addition to tariffs) with which more Americans are about to become familiar. Hint - it’s not French.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

35 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for ajm Avatar for zandru Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for eldonlazar Avatar for jeffs Avatar for tao Avatar for claimsadjuster Avatar for commanderogg Avatar for darrtown Avatar for zd123 Avatar for reggid Avatar for southerndem Avatar for canyoncountry Avatar for brian512 Avatar for tindalos Avatar for bcgister Avatar for quickq Avatar for ladyfair Avatar for VeganMilitia Avatar for Mingus Avatar for old_guru Avatar for john_adams Avatar for doncoolidge

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: