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As tensions simmered between the United States and Europe this week over President Donald Trump\u2019s push to acquire Greenland,<\/a> Russian officials, state-backed media and pro-Kremlin bloggers responded with a mixture of glee, gloating and wariness.<\/p>\n Some touted Trump\u2019s move as historic, while others said it weakens the European Union and NATO \u2014 something that Moscow would seem to welcome \u2014 and that it takes some of the West’s attention away from Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n There was wariness, too, with commentators noting the possible acquisition of the island by the U.S. held security and economic concerns for Russia, which has sought to assert its influence over wide areas of the Arctic and has moved to boost its military presence in the region, home to its Northern Fleet and a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n In a speech at the World Economic Forum<\/a> in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Trump insisted he wants to \u201cget Greenland,\u201d but said he would not use force to do so while repeatedly deriding European allies and vowing that NATO should not try to block U.S. expansionism. <\/p>\n The Kremlin has neither criticized nor supported Trump on the issue, but pointed out the far-reaching impact if the U.S. took Greenland from Denmark. Such measured praise appears in line with Moscow’s public rhetoric toward the current U.S. administration, as Russia tries to win concessions in the Trump-led effort to end its nearly four-year war in Ukraine and revive relations with Washington that had plunged to Cold War lows.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of whether it\u2019s good or bad and whether it complies with international law or not, there are international experts who believe that if Trump takes control of Greenland he will go down in history, and not only the U.S. history but world history,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout discussing whether it\u2019s good or bad, it\u2019s hard not to agree with these experts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Sunday compared it to \u201csuch \u2018planetary\u2019 events as Abraham Lincoln\u2019s abolition of slavery … or the territorial conquests of the Napoleonic Wars.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIf Trump secures the annexation of Greenland by July 4, 2026, when America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he will undoubtedly join the ranks of historical figures who affirmed the greatness of the United States,\u201d the newspaper wrote.<\/p>\n A statement that appeared favorable to Trump came from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said at a news conference Tuesday that Denmark\u2019s control over Greenland<\/a> was a vestige of the colonial past<\/p>\n \u201cIn principle, Greenland isn\u2019t a natural part of Denmark,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Lavrov also drew parallels between Trump\u2019s bid for Greenland and President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimean Peninsula. The 2014 illegal seizure of the peninsula is not recognized by most of the world. <\/p>\n \u201cCrimea isn\u2019t less important for the security of the Russian Federation than Greenland is for the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Others focused on the potential rift between the U.S. and its European allies in NATO, a bloc that has held firm since the dawn of the Cold War and that Russia has long viewed as an adversary.<\/p>\n \u201cTransatlantic unity is over. Leftist, globalist EU\/UK elites failed,\u201d wrote Kirill Dmitriev, a presidential envoy involved in talks with the U.S. on ending the war in Ukraine, in a post Saturday on X. <\/p>\n