MOSCOW—Russia is giving Donald Trump the kind of fawning television coverage usually reserved for Vladimir Putin, with its most popular propagandist hailing the president-elect this week as “a man of his word.”

But inside the Kremlin, the initial euphoria over having a Putin admirer in the White House is giving way to skepticism that any meaningful detente with the U.S. can be achieved, according to four senior officials in Moscow.

Swirling controversies over alleged Putin-ordered hacking to help Trump get elected and a leaked dossier claiming the Kremlin has blackmail material on him has transfixed Washington, where a bill to impose even harsher sanctions on Russia is gaining bipartisan support. The backlash appears to have forced many of Trump’s cabinet picks to take tougher lines on Russia in their confirmation hearings than the Kremlin anticipated, the people said.

The unprecedented firestorm is a double-edged sword for Putin, who’s spent the last 16 years trying to restore some semblance of his country’s lost superpower status — while Russia is back at the centre of U.S. attention, the uproar has energized Putin’s critics, according to Alexei Chesnakov, a former senior Kremlin staffer who now advises the ruling United Russia party.

“There is a sensible shift of expectations in the Kremlin,” Chesnakov said in an interview. “The leadership understands clearly now that restoring ties won’t be easy and that more scandals will worsen the chances.”

Trump’s own, often contradictory, statements are as worrying for Russia, according to the people. Take the prospects for easing the penalties imposed after Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Last month, Trump said the U.S. should “greatly” expand its nuclear capability and seemed to call for a new arms race. But in an interview with European media this week, he said atomic arsenals should be cut “very substantially” and linked a possible new arms deal with Putin to sanctions relief.

Kremlin and other officials have said they will reserve judgment about comments made by Trump or his Cabinet picks until after the inauguration this week.

Putin came to Trump’s defence himself on Tuesday. He said claims in the leaked dossier, such as Russia having a tape of the billionaire-turned-politician cavorting with sex workers, in Moscow are “obvious fabrications.”

“I find it hard to believe that he rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world,” Putin said.

The Kremlin has also reached out to Trump’s transition team with an invitation to send a representative to talks it’s sponsoring on ending Syria’s civil war later this month, but so far no decision has been announced.

Russian officials could be deliberately talking down expectations from Trump, of course, in an effort to undermine suspicions in the U.S. they supported him.

President Barack Obama has used his remaining time in office to make it harder for his successor to mend ties with America’s Cold War foe if he chooses. He expelled 35 Russian diplomats and imposed penalties on more senior officials in Moscow last month after U.S. agencies concluded Putin personally ordered hacking during the campaign to help Trump and harm Hillary Clinton. Putin has repeatedly denied involvement.

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Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, a longtime Putin ally known for hawkish views, sought to temper public expectations of better ties with the U.S. this week. A poll taken two months ago found that almost half the country anticipated better relations with the U.S. “soon” after Trump takes office.

“In this environment, we can’t talk about radical changes in Russian-U.S. relations,” Patrushev said in the government’s official newspaper. “We don’t have any illusions about a sudden easing of measures to contain Russia.”

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