Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump Allies Overseas Praise VP Pick J.D. Vance

Russian President Vladimir Putin ’s top allies across Europe are reportedly applauding Donald Trump ’s vice president pick J.D. Vance .

Vance, a vocal proponent of ending U.S. aid to Ukraine, could be key to helping Putin’s war aims in Ukraine if Trump wins a second presidency.

Vance has earned praise from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who told reporters that “[Vance is] in favor of peace” on Wednesday at the U.N. Conference in New York, according to Reuters .

“He’s in favor of ending the assistance that’s being provided, and we can only welcome that because that’s what we need—to stop pumping Ukraine full of weapons and then the war will end,” Lavrov added.

Alexander Dugin, the far-right Russian author who has been described as “Putin’s Brain,” said Vance’s nomination signals that “reasonable people could come to power in the States,” according to The Times .

Balazs Orbán, a political director for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (no relation), congratulated Vance yesterday on X, formerly Twitter , writing, “A Trump-Vance administration sounds just right.”

On the other hand, Politico reported that a senior EU official was less complimentary about Vance as a future vice president.

“This is a disaster,” the official reportedly said.

Orbán, a longtime Trump ally, has courted controversy for his cozy relationship with Putin and for trying to block assistance to Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.

Orbán’s administration seemingly has eyes for Vance after the senator played a key role in trying to stop a U.S. aid package for the embattled Eastern European country earlier this year.

“We were able to make it pretty clear to Europe and the rest of the world that America can’t write blank checks indefinitely,” Vance told reporters in April 2023.

The Financial Times reported that senior Hungarian officials also welcomed the prospect of Vance as VP after Orbán privately told European leaders that Trump “will be ready to act as a peace broker” in the conflict “immediately” if he wins the presidential election in November.

Orbán reportedly put this information in a letter not long after chatting with Trump in Florida following last week’s NATO summit. The Hungarian PM was also said to have already spoken with leaders in Ukraine, Russia and China about peace.

However, Orbán’s self-styled peace mission, which comes as Hungary holds the European Union’s rotating six-month presidency, hasn’t gone over well with the rest of the EU. According to the Associated Press , it has prompted the ire of top EU leaders, who’ve said that they are planning to boycott any informal meetings hosted by Hungary for the foreseeable future.

Read more at The Daily Beast.