Artem Kovchenkov is a supporter of President-elect Donald J. Trump, although he didn't vote for him. He's not legally allowed to.

He lives in Elektrostal, Russia, a city of 160,000 residents located 35 miles east of Moscow.

“I believe Trump really wants to make the United States great, from the inside,” said Kovchenkov.

Like most of his countrymen in Russia, Kovchenkov kept a sharp eye on the recent presidential election between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“The election was discussed very much because the two candidates have diametrically opposed views on foreign policy,” said Kovchenkov, 37, who has two degrees, one in economy, the other in law.

I met Kovchenkov just before Election Day, during his visit to Northwest Indiana to meet a mutual friend of ours. This was his first visit to our country. He brought along his young son, Vanya, who looked just as open-eyed about our region as his father during their week-long stay.

We shared breakfast and lighthearted chit-chat that day, but I stayed in contact with him as Election Day came and went.

“Most people in Russia sympathize with Donald Trump because his views on foreign and domestic policies seem more reasonable and practical than Hillary Clinton's,” he said after Trump's victory. “I think Hillary was just trying to divert the attention of voters from her failures.”

“Unlike Hillary, he is not aimed at the unleashing of international conflicts and wars,” Kovchenkov explained. “And he plans to dissect the domestic problems of the United States, as well as to build a pragmatic relationship with your international partners.”

This is an intriguing perception of Trump from a foreign citizen who clearly understands the historical tension between his country and ours. This perception flies in the face of how most Americans (including many of his supporters) perceive our new president-elect, whose inflammatory rhetoric stood out during the campaign.

Kovchenkov told me he harbors “positive and hopeful feelings,” same as many of his fellow Russian citizens.

“We hope that relations between our countries will become friendly, warm and a partnership,” he told me.

Is this wishful thinking? Of course.

Most Americans now harbor similar wishful thinking in regard to Trump's upcoming presidential term. What other recourse do we have at this point?

I asked Kovchenkov his thoughts on Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was quick to congratulate Trump after his victory.

“He spoke about resuming and restoring relations with Russia,” Putin told his citizens via Russian state television. “We understand the way to that will be difficult, taking into account the current state of degradation of relations between the U.S. and Russia.

“As I have repeatedly said, that is not our fault that Russia-U.S. relations are in that state,” Putin told viewers. “Russia is ready and wants to restore the fully fledged relations with the U.S. I repeat, we understand this will be difficult, but we are ready to play our part in it.”

Kovchenkov, who works for an investment company in Moscow, conducts commercial legal work and investment strategies as an attorney. He wants to believe in Putin's promises, just as we want to believe in Trump's promises regarding this country's relationship with our Cold War foe. But Kovchenkov stops short of blind faith in Putin.

“Nobody in Russia believes in Putin's connections with (Trump),” Kovchenkov said.

Similarly, not everyone in Russia believes Trump's campaign explanations regarding his business and political ties with Putin.

“Winter Is Here,” tweeted Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess grandmaster after Trump's victory. If you recall, Kasparov wrote the highly critical book, “Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.”

For more than a decade, Kasparov has been an outspoken critic of Putin, to the point of trying to steer the country's pro-democracy opposition to Putin in its 2008 presidential election.

“For as long as the world's powerful democracies continue to recognize and negotiate with Putin, he can maintain credibility in his home country,” Kasparov writes in his 2015 book. “He faces few strong enemies within his country, so meaningful opposition must come from abroad.”

Will this opposition come from Trump in 2017 and beyond? Again, time will tell.

As we learned from all those so-called political experts leading up to Election Day, Trump is an international X-factor that no one has yet figured out.

Before Kovchenkov returned to Elektrostal, he took several cruises through Northwest Indiana, finding more similarities than differences with his own city and its surrounding region.

“I felt like I was in Russia while looking through the car window,” he said, sporting souvenirs of Chicago Cubs shirts and caps.

In light of our two countries' obvious obstacles and fears, possibly even more so under Trump's rule, Kovchenkov said his country's people want the same as our country's people.

“The same worries, the same problems, the same reasons for gladness, the same wishes, and the same hopes,” he said.

jdavich@post-trib.com

Twitter@jdavich