The barely-disguised delight in Moscow that greeted Donald Trump's victory on November 8 has gradually melted into a mixture of confusion and frustration.
And that in turn has led to a cold-eyed reappraisal among Russian officials of what can be achieved with the Trump Administration.
The reappraisal was crisply expressed by President Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, last week, when he told CNN: "We have heard various statements by President Trump. We are full of patience and we are waiting for the moment when the statements are followed by actions."
But "actions" — in the Russian view — are being sabotaged by what officials here describe as the highly-charged emotional atmosphere in Washington.
Even before President Trump's inauguration, Peskov complained about allegations of Russian-sponsored hacking in the US.
"Clearly there are those who are creating hysteria, who are trying to support this witch hunt," he said in January.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also used the term "witch hunt" Friday to describe the uproar over meetings between the Russian ambassador in Washington, Sergey Kislyak, and Trump associates.
Trump himself has said that the uproar could damage relations.
At his news conference on February 16, the US President said: "If you were Putin right now, you would say, 'Hey, we're back to the old games with the United States; there's no way Trump can ever do a deal with us.'"
Moscow would like to see -- as soon as possible -- concrete plans for tackling terrorism, co-operation in Syria and negotiations on missile defenses in Europe and nuclear weapons.
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Most of all it wants the relaxation of international sanctions imposed on Russian individuals and companies following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
In Peskov's view: "Without the two biggest countries working together, US and Russia, it's just impossible to be effective in this war on terrorism." But Russia is still waiting for the White House to decide on a new Syria policy, and on how it intends to scale up -- as President Trump has promised -- the war on ISIS.
There are tentative signs of co-operation on the ground in Syria, but the United States has not been involved in the Russian-led peace process.
There is no rapprochement in sight on other issues. While President Trump at times in the campaign left the door open to reconsidering sanctions against Russia, several of his appointees have since taken a much harder line.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had direct access to Putin as CEO of Exxon, said the US needed to be "clear-eyed" about Russia.
"Russia today poses a danger....It has invaded Ukraine, including the taking of Crimea, and supported Syrian forces that brutally violate the laws of war," he said at Senate confirmation hearings.
The sentiment was echoed by US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis: "There's a decreasing number of areas where we can engage cooperatively, and an increasing number of areas where we're going to have to confront Russia."
And then new CIA Director Mike Pompeo chimed in on the hacking allegations: "It's pretty clear about what took place here, about Russian involvement in efforts to hack information and to have an impact on American democracy" -- efforts he said directed by senior leadership inside Russia.
One of the more pro-Russian voices in the new Administration, Mike Flynn, was gone after just 24 days in office as National Security Adviser, after he admitted giving "incomplete information" regarding his phone calls with Russian ambassador Kislyak.
His replacement, Lt. Gen. H R McMaster, is of a different persuasion.
In 2015, McMaster said that Russia wants "to collapse the post-World War Two, certainly the post-Cold War, security, economic, and political order in Europe and replace that order with something that is more sympathetic to Russian interests."
source:cnn.com
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