Russia has quickly denounced President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy as having “an imperialist character.”
“A quick read of the parts of the strategy that mention our country one way or another… (shows) an imperialist character,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Peskov also criticized the policy for being willfully U.S.-centric as it exhibits “an unwillingness to give up the idea of a unipolar world, moreover, an insistent unwillingness, disregard for a multipolar world.”
In releasing the strategy Monday, Trump identified Russia and China as the paramount nations “that challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity.” It also warns against the notion that “engagement with rivals” will turn them into “benign actors and trustworthy partners.”
The president also reiterated his belief that communication between the international rivals must continue. Trump mentioned how he had shared U.S. intelligence information with Russian President Vladimir Putin the previous weekend that Trump said had stifled a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg.
The Russian response wasn’t entirely negative either. “We can not agree with an attitude that sees our country as a threat to the United States,” Peskov said. “At the same time, there are some modestly positive aspects, in particular, the readiness to cooperate in areas that correspond to American interests.”
