The reason Trump suddenly turned his back on Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday ordered the expulsion of diplomatic staff from 23 Western countries, just a day after asking 60 American diplomats to leave the country and closing the US consulate general in St. Petersburg.

This is Moscow's drastic reaction after Washington and 27 other countries simultaneously expelled Russian diplomats in response to the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in the UK. This "tit-for-tat" move also marked the worst period in Russia-US relations under President Donald Trump, who had previously publicly shown friendliness towards Moscow and his counterpart Putin.

According to commentator David A. Graham ofAtlanticNothing has troubled Donald Trump's presidency more than his attitude toward Russia. During the campaign, he repeatedly praised Putin and refused to condemn Russia's annexation of Crimea. Trump also publicly called on Russia to release emails stolen from former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, something his aides later said was "just a joke."

After taking office, Trump continued to show clear favoritism towards Russia. He refused to acknowledge the accusations of Russian interference in the US election, always wanting to prevent investigations touching on this issue, which caused a lot of political and legal turmoil for him, when many Americans suspected that the President was obstructing justice and had no suitable views on the Russia issue.

However, everything changed when British Prime Minister Theresa May accused Russia of "highly likely" being behind the Skripal poisoning. While the former Russian intelligence colonel was critically ill in hospital, May called Trump and other Western leaders, urging them to launch a coordinated attack on Moscow. In this case, Trump suddenly turned his back on Russia.

Skripal, who was sentenced to prison by Russia for passing classified documents to foreign intelligence, was later brought to the UK in a spy swap between Russia and the US. He and his daughter were found poisoned in Salisbury, England, on March 4.

The US decision to expel 60 Russian diplomats on suspicion of espionage and close the Russian consulate in Seattle surprised many allies about the scale and severity of the Trump administration's sanctions.

The new Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, had to write a letter asking for help in early March after a series of US congressional and government leaders refused to meet him. This is in stark contrast to what Washington gave to his predecessor, Sergey Kislayak, who was brought into the Oval Office to meet Trump last year and is even said to have heard some classified information revealed by the US President himself.

According to observers, Mr. Trump's dismissal of national security adviser HR McMaster and replacing him with John Bolton, who has a hardline stance on Russia, is a sign of his changing attitude toward Moscow.

John Herbst, a scholar at the Atlantic Council, said advisers like Bolton have a huge influence on Trump's decisions. "The Trump administration has policies that its predecessors did not want to do, such as providing anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. President Trump doesn't want to do it, but for some reason he is willing to listen to his advisers," Herbst said.

Some people believe that Trump's decision to impose heavy sanctions on Russia is aimed at eliminating conspiracy theories that Putin has evidence that can "control" the US President. However, commentator Graham believes that the reason Trump turned his back on Putin stems from his desire to affirm the US President's legitimacy.

Special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation has so far found no evidence that Mr. Trump was involved in "collusion" with Russia in the 2016 election, so Trump has no reason to worry about accusations that he was controlled by Russia. But such conspiracy-theory accusations make Trump feel that his position as US President is in doubt, forcing him to take drastic action to affirm that he is worthy of leading the United States.

A source revealed toNBC Newsthat during the discussion of the plan to expel Russian diplomats, Trump made clear his displeasure with Putin's recent claim that Moscow was possessing new nuclear "superweapons" that Washington could not stop. He needed to do something to assert US superiority over Russia, just as Mrs. May called to inform her about the Skripal case.

Graham argues that Trump will have a hard time erasing the fact that Russian interference helped him win last year’s election, but he will do everything he can to assert his legitimacy. This helps explain Trump’s willingness to punish Russia for the Skripal case, but his swift dismissal of any accusations of Moscow’s election interference.