'Reckless' Trump Would Be No Better for Russia Than Biden—Putin Ally

A pro-Russian former Ukrainian lawmaker once tipped to lead a Kremlin-controlled administration in Kyiv, has said that Donald Trump getting re-elected president would make no difference to U.S-Russian ties.

Oleg Tsaryov was reacting to comments that Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had made to CBS when asked if there would be a "shift" in ties between Washington and Moscow should Trump be re-elected.

While president, Trump's reported links with Vladimir Putin were subject to scrutiny and the GOP primary front-runner avoided agreeing with U.S. intelligence that the Russian leader had interfered on his behalf during the 2016 presidential election.

This has spurred rhetoric among Kremlin propagandists that Trump is Moscow's favored candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Trump has also claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine started by Putin within "24 hours."

But Tsaryov said in a Telegram post that the situation regarding the war Ukraine would be the same under Trump, agreeing with Lavrov's comment to CBS that "as for who is more promising for Russia, I don't believe that there is any difference."

"I agree with Sergei Lavrov. The U.S. under Trump would have reacted the same way or even more harshly," Tsaryov wrote. "Trump has only paid lip service to being ready to get along with Putin."

Tsaryov is a former Ukrainian deputy, first elected to the parliament in Kyiv in 2002, before being expelled in 2014. Until 2015, he was speaker of the Parliament of Novorossiya, a confederation that included the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

His links to Vladimir Putin were close enough for him to be enlisted as a leader of a puppet administration planned for Kyiv ahead of Putin's invasion in 2022, which failed to take the Ukrainian capital.

In Wednesday's post, Tsaryov noted "there was no easing of the sanctions regime against Russia. Trump said one thing and did another," referring to sanctions put in place following Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Under Trump, Ukraine also received Javelin missiles, which along with British arms "caused us a lot of trouble" near Kyiv, he said.

Tsaryov noted how under Trump there were U.S. missile strikes on Syria and that Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been assassinated in 2020 during his presidency.

"Trump's actions are reckless and very bold," he said. "One can only guess how he would have behaved with the beginning of the SMO (special military operation)," he added, referring to the Kremlin term for the invasion of Ukraine.

"Biden is truly afraid of a Russian nuclear response. His actions are careful and measured. I'm afraid Trump could be more decisive," Tsaryov added.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump team for comment.

In October 2023, Tsaryov was shot and wounded in an attack which followed assassinations of other pro-Moscow figures, prompting a probe by Russia's top investigative body.

A source in the Security Service of Ukraine intelligence agency said it had carried out the shooting in Yalta, Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and that Tsaryov was an "absolutely legal target."

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