(CBS News) Moscow — When it comes to the U.S. government, Russian TV pulls no punches. “Failure,” “not making any sense,” “liar” — these are just a few of the labels that anchors on Russia’s state-run TV have pinned on President Donald Trump in recent months.
Television remains the primary source of news for more than 80 percent of Russia’s population, according to polls, so for millions of viewers across the country, the berating of the U.S. leader is nothing new. Russia’s biggest and most watched TV channels, funded and controlled by the Kremlin, have cultivated the anti-American sentiment since U.S.-Russia relations soured over the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukrainein 2014.
But Kremlin propagandists on the airwaves took a decidedly friendlier tone in their coverage of Mr. Trump during the 2016 U.S. election campaign. […]
“Even though Trump himself hasn’t said anything particularly negative about Russia, at some point it became clear that his administration — even people he personally appointed to various high-ranking posts — is fully prepared for a confrontation with Russia,” Mikhail Troitsky, a Moscow-based analyst, told CBS News. […]
“Trump seems to be lost in the fog of suspicions,” a report on the Mueller investigation said. This notion became the cornerstone of the Kremlin’s disenchantment with Mr. Trump, Troitsky said: “Disappointments probably stemmed from Trump’s inability to free himself from the ties and restrictions he’s enmeshed in by his government and the Congress — especially now that the Democrats got the majority of seats in the House.” […]
“It is unlikely that he changes his attitude towards Russia, so Russia will continue to hope that he will eventually come out of this crisis willing to work with Russia,” Troitsky said. […]
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