Donald Trump's comments earlier this week regarding Crimea might have alienated the Western world, but they drew the attention and adulation of the Russians,
The Washington Free Beacon reported.
During a campaign stop earlier this week in Florida, Trump said as president he would consider recognizing Crimea as Russian territory as well as lifting sanctions against Russia for its Ukraine aggression.
That went over very well with one Russian lawmaker.
"Trump has repeatedly proven that he, like no one else, understands the public's demand for a change in course, and the attitudes of a large part of voters who have grown tired of the Clintons and the Bushes," Konstantin Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page, according to the Free Beacon.
Said Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian separatist who serves as leader of the Crimean Peninsula: "Trump says only what his voters want to hear. This means there is a desire to improve ties with Russia in American society."
Meanwhile, Trump's comments Wednesday, which amounted to one answer to one question and were overshadowed by his invitation to Russia to find Hillary Clinton's missing 30,000 emails, drew expected criticism.
"It would reward Mr. Putin's brazen aggression," Dalibor Rohac of the American Enterprise Institute told the Free Beacon. "It would encourage further Russian expansionism in Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, risk compromising territorial integrity of Eastern countries, and could ultimately lead to international war."
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