Berkeley Professor: ‘Putin is very smart. And Trump is very stupid. And that's an ideal situation for both’

Little time left before the election of the new president of the USA. In your opinion, who of the candidates has greater support of the population? Who is the leader?

Right now it looks like Hillary Clinton clearly has the support of more people than Donald Trump does. Right after the Republican Convention Trump looked like he might win. This always happens after each party holds its national convention. Their candidate gets a big boost in the polls. But after his Convention Bump, his number started going down again. In most national surveys, she is now above 5-10 points, some survey shows even more than that. So right now things look really good for Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton accused Russia of participating in the U.S. elections. She thinks Moscow took part in cyberattacks. Then an anonymous team of hackers called Fancy Bears published documents proving that athletes, including American athletes, took banned substances. It is told the team comes from Russia. What do you think about it?

There is no doubt that her Democratic Party headquarters, emails were hacked by forces from Russia. It is very likely they were government sources. This is pretty unusual for a country that tries to interfere directly in the elections.

Republicans told they wanted to replace Trump. Is this scenario possible?

Many republicans would like it. But it's too late because this is a democracy. He won the nomination. Even though most of the republicans want to change him, you can't do switches at the top in the last minute. Even people would love to replace him. But now it is impossible whoever tried to do it.

Hillary Clinton clearly has the support of more people than Donald Trump does. Photo: rusevik.ru

Before the second debates between Clinton and Trump, The Washington Post published a video from 2005. In the video, Trump expresses his opinion about women. Then WiliLeaks published a pile of letters of the head of Clinton's campaign office. Will all this affect Trump's chances? Will he be able to neutralise these losses that tarnished his reputation?

I don't think he will be able to recover from those statements. What he said in those tapes was so consistent with everything everybody already knows about him, his priding about grabbing women without them consenting. That really is outrageous. I think a lot of even his supporters are now backing down from supporting him due to that. That is a crime. In California, what he did is sexual assault. And people go to jail for that. And he is bragging about it. He says: 'They let me get away because I am a celebrity'. To be honest, a lot of people, including me, view this crazy. He said: 'When you are a star they let you do it'. As a man that appreciates man's ability to attract women without being a star and forcing them, it just seems to be ridiculous. It even tears down his macho image as a ladies' man. And this fact shows that he is not a ladies' man. He has to be a star in order to get them interested in him. It is outrageous from any angle.

Generally speaking, is it fine for USA to play dirty by publishing such information? Is it a pre-election technology so to speak?

He said these things himself on tape. He did not know the tape was rolling. Any campaign would use this information. This is just normal democratic politics. Dirty tactics, hacking emails, access private emails, just bring up tapes to public knowledge that are classified that is something that any campaign would do in democracy. It is to be expected.

Does Hillary Clinton have serious health problems?

I don't think so. Both she and Trump are seventy-year-old. Both are ageing. Earlier she had pneumonia, which is a normal thing that some people get sometimes. But she got over it. Both have some minor problems but nothing that would prevent them from being a president.

Both she and Trump are seventy-year-old. Both are ageing. Both have some minor problems but nothing that would prevent them from being a president. Photo: front.info

Why does Moscow choose Trump?

I think the answer to this question is quite simple and straightforward. First of all, Putin very much wants to weaken the western alliance. That's just what he does. He is very open about that. He wants to drive a wedge in NATO between Europe and the US. That's to be expected because he's used NATO as an alliance that is designed to contain Russia and Russian ambitions. Anything that weakens that alliance he thinks is good for Russia. I actually think differently about international relations than he does, but I understand the way he feels. When Trump has made outrageous statements, outrageous from a traditional American viewpoint, about abandoning our allies in Western Europe, he was asked about supporting Estonia if there were a conflict between Estonia and Russia. He said: 'Well, maybe'. The problem is that the U.S. is legally treaty-bound to protect NATO members if there is an attack by anybody. For a president who is not committed to NATO would be Putin's dream, of course. I think that's one reason.

Another reason is that Trump is very easy to flatter. If you praise him, he is too egotistical, he will do everything you want. He will do everything if you tell he is smart and handsome. Putin did it and saw Donald's reaction to it. Donald wanted to become Putin's friend. Putin is a smart man. He understands he can use this man. Naturally, he wants a stupid man and a man whom he can manipulate to become the U.S. President. Anybody who thinks that the U.S. is their enemy would want a weak president of the US.

Trump is also sceptical about democracy. One thing that Putin wants to do is to promote autocracy. Trump says things that make it clear he is an autocrat. So Putin likes him for that reason too. Putin is very smart. And Trump is very stupid. And that's an ideal situation for both.

To not meet Poroshenko is his way of showing that he supports not just Russia but whatever Putin wants right now. Photo: vesti.ru

A couple of weeks ago Donald Trump refused to meet with Pietro Poroshenko. Can we consider it as a kind of support of Russia?

Yes, I think it is. He has a very soft spot for Putin. Trump likes pretty much anything Putin wants. He is very interested in this respect. To not meet Poroshenko is his way of showing that he supports not just Russia but whatever Putin wants right now. He even said recently he would meet with Putin even before he was inaugurated if he is elected. But he did not mention any other leaders. This is really strange. No American presidential candidate has ever talked this way about anybody, not just about Russia.

He likes the fact that Putin said nice things about him personally. And his campaign manager at the beginning of the campaign was Paul Manafort who was paid $12m out of Yanukovich's secret account to run his campaign. And that account was probably filled by the Russian government, which is understandable. Yanukovich was Putin's ally. Paul Manafort probably feels he owes the Russian government money. He probably does because he was in big debt in the USA five years ago. After the win of Yanukovich's campaign in Ukraine, all of a sudden this debt disappeared.

I would not say he is just pro-Russian, I would say he is pro-Putin. Trump doesn't know anything about Russia. He doesn't care about Russia. He just likes the fact that Putin said nice things about him.

Elections in the USA are covered worldwide. Elections to the State Duma of Russia took place in September, as you know. Are elections in Russia popular abroad? Particularly in the USA? Did you follow them?

I followed them because I study Russian politics. I gave a talk on them in Washington right before the elections. Most Americans don't pay any attention to them. For the reason that it did not matter who governed Russia. The outcome was absolutely predictable. Everybody knows that it would be whatever outcome the Kremlin wanted, and it was. United Russia, Just Russia, LDPR and Communist Party, as usual. And I think the main thing is just that Duma holds absolutely no power. When 100% of the deputies are the President's men… there is not much left to talk about. If the Duma had a lot of power, they would have got much attention in America. The Russian presidential Election will get a lot of attention in America, although as not much as it would if it were competitive. At least, Putin matters because he holds a real power.

Most Americans don't pay any attention to them. For the reason that it did not matter who governed Russia. The outcome was absolutely predictable. <...> At least Putin matters because he holds a real power. Photo: kremlin.ru

Ukraine urges not to accept the vote in Crimea. Does Washington listen to it?

No. Washington doesn't really listen to Ukraine. Whatever Ukraine says about Russian affairs is not something that Washington pays much attention to. They have their own opinion about Russia affairs. Everybody knows that Poroshenko's government is an anti-Russian government.

The Polish Minister of Defence Antoni Macierewicz is worried about the appearance of Iskander missile system in Kaliningrad. Is there any reason for concern?

Of course, there is a reason for concern. When the USA and NATO place missiles in Eastern Europe, Russia gets very concerned. And it should. When Russia places missiles on the border with Poland, in a little piece of Russian territory, of course, it should be a cause for concern. Unfortunately, nuclear relations between our countries have gotten terrible. I think there is a great reason for both sides to be concerned. We are not handling it very well, let's face. I only hope that the next administration in the U.S. does a better job and President Putin starts doing a better job as well.

The Presidents of Turkey and Russia have met three times since August. What does Turkey want to show with such a behaviour? What does the USA think about this friendship of Turkey and Russia?

The U.S. is very concerned when a NATO ally gets close to Russia. I think that is normal. If an ally of Russia gets close to the US, Russia would be concerned, of course, because Russia and the U.S. are defining each others' enemies right now. I don't think it has to be that way. Unfortunately, right now it is. In the USA, Turkey has such long-term strong relations. Turkey is fully integrated into NATO militarily. So that's a matter of concern for Washington, to be sure.

It is told that an information war broke out in Europe: Russia lies, while Europe – no. What is the opinion of the USA? Is Russia really lying?

Sure, absolutely. We all lie. Who lies? Putin or Obama? Well, both Putin and Obama. That's just politics. But there is a question: who lies more? And I think Europeans and Americans are pretty similar in our outlooks on the world. If you look at RT now and the Russian media, it is really full of lies. I watch RT, I appeared on RT a few weeks ago with Oksana Boyko. There is very little factual reporting going on. It did not use to be the case of RT with Russian foreign broadcast service. It did not use to be the case of the Russian government. What Russian government said was often reliable, it was not just a propaganda.

These days, especially since about 2012, when President Putin was re-elected to his third term, the Russian state media, especially the foreign media, RT, looked like neo-Soviet to us, like a Soviet soft propaganda. And it is very anti-western. There is an assumption that 'the West is trying to destroy us. We, Russian people, have to stand up'. It is exactly the same language. The U.S. is linked with everything. Every crisis in the world, every problem in Russia is due to American's conspiracy and American effort. It is not just how the world works.

So right now the Russian media looks to us to be an alien side. And we know that our own media is completely crazy. And we know that American media is not unbiased. But it is pluralistic. You can get good information in many different sources. We don't see that in Russia. In Russia, we see media that is entirely state-controlled. Not every newspaper, not every outlet, but certainly all major TV are entirely state-controlled. If you are not on Putin's team, you can't keep broadcasting. It doesn't mean the truth. You can't be oppositional. In the USA, you can be oppositional. There are millions of different sources with different opinions. We trust our own media than Russia media.

The U.S. is very concerned when a NATO ally gets close to Russia. I think that is normal. Photo: kremlin.ru

The Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to meet his French colleague Françoise Hollande on 19 October. The Russian President's press secretary told Putin decided to cancel the visit. It is told there is an international isolation of Russia. Is it true?

Yes, there is. I don't think that the world is trying to isolate Russia. What Russia is doing is isolating itself in the world. Russia's foreign policy in Syria is genocidal. You don't hear about it in your media, of course. You hear the Asaad regime is trying to do good things to pull the country back together and you are helping them. That's not what is going on in Syria. Syria has been torn apart for the last 5 years by the Asaad regime. And before that the Asaad regime created the worst human rights record in the Arab world. And it is hard to do. If you can be the worst in human rights in the Arab world, is very-very bad. It is what Asaad has done. And the Russian government backed him 100%. And it is causing a humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. And Europe and the U.S. are paying for that because refugees are coming to us. Russia doesn't take any Syrian refugees. This is a disaster for us. And this is a disaster for them at least.

France is very concerned about that. France traditionally has ties with Syria. The USA doesn't have those relations. But these countries really care about Syria. For Russia to be acting the way that insisting on basically conquering the country along with the Asaad regime is something that Russia is going to have to return for. You can't keep doing it with that consequences. This is a major major problem for Russia's foreign partners and allies.

Right now it is not about Ukraine. It is certainly not about Crimea. It is about Syria also nuclear arms control. Russia is backing every possible avenue for cooperation on that road. Because Putin said he wants to modernise nuclear forces in Russia. I understand that from a military point of view. But he is not being very diplomatic. He is not doing a good job while getting along with people abroad. So yes, that's gonna cause Russia to be isolated.

Vladimir Putin ordered to suspend the treaty with the USA on cleaning up weapons-grade plutonium.According to Putin's order, Russia will be ready to renew the treaty if the United States of America repeals the Magnitsky List, lifts the sanctions, pays compensations, reduces its military presence in Eastern European countries. Will the USA meet these conditions?

Of course, not. That is a nonsensical list of demand. This is ridiculous to back out on a treaty that is absolutely in both powers' interests and which is much a bigger issue that the Magnistky List and that crap. This is why Putin is isolating Russia. He knows that no one will be met. He knows that it is nonsense. It is not gonna happen.

When will the USA lift the sanctions?

No time soon. Right now the Europeans want to introduce new sanctions over Syria.

As I have seen, you speak Russian fluently. Have you ever been in Russia?

Yes, I lived in Russia in the 90s when I was studying Russian politics. I love Russia. I have been visiting it often for 30 years. It is like my second home. I'm going to return for several months because I am writing a book about Russia for Americans. This book explains this country to the American people who don't know it.