--- title: Donald Trump's Rex Tillerson Pick Makes Russia Happy description: Many Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have a good relationship with Rex Tillerson, the Kremlin told reporters. canonical: https://time.com/4598968/russia-kremlin-rex-tillerson-donald-trump/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-13T14:00:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:30:59.193Z article:section: Politics og:title: Russia Is Happy With Donald Trump’s Choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State og:description: Many Russian officials, including Putin, have a good relationship with Tillerson og:url: https://time.com/4598968/russia-kremlin-rex-tillerson-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt047899e91c5fde27/6988b2be7cdbacc409d568f3/gettyimages-491649600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: BRITAIN-ENERGY-OIL og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Russia Is Happy With Donald Trump’s Choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State twitter:description: Many Russian officials, including Putin, have a good relationship with Tillerson twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt047899e91c5fde27/6988b2be7cdbacc409d568f3/gettyimages-491649600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Russia Is Happy With Donald Trump’s Choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Dec 13, 2016 2:00 PM UTC  Chairman and CEO of US oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, speaks during the 2015 Oil and Money conference in central London on October 7, 2015. Chairman and CEO of US oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, speaks during the 2015 Oil and Money conference in central London on October 7, 2015. BEN STANSALL—AFP/Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Dec 13, 2016 2:00 PM UTC Many Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have a good relationship with Exxon Mobil Corp’s [Rex Tillerson](http://time.com/4597328/donald-trump-rex-tillerson-secretary-state/), the Kremlin told reporters on Tuesday. Tillerson was [selected by President-elect Donald Trump](http://time.com/4598769/rex-tillerson-secretary-of-state-donald-trump/) as Secretary of State on Monday night, his transition team confirmed. [Tillerson](http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1725112%5F1723512%5F1724691,00.html), whom Trump called a “world class player” during a _Fox News Sunday_ interview, has maintained close ties with Russia and was awarded the Order of Friendship in 2013 by Putin, an honor for a foreign citizen. According to Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, Tillerson “has actively assisted business cooperation” and is known to many Russian officials. [AFP ](https://twitter.com/AFP/status/808659464677163009)also reported that Putin has “good, businesslike” relations with the new U.S. Secretary of State, along with many other Russian officials. When Ushakov was asked whether Tillerson’s new role could help mend U.S.-Russian ties, he told [Reuters](http://uk.reuters.com/article/usa-trump-russia-tillerson-kremlin-idUKR4N1E4015): “We want to get out of the crisis state \[of our relations\], which does not satisfy neither the Russian nor the American side.” A 40-year employee of the energy giant, Tillerson is the first person in at least a century to be elevated to the post of Secretary of State without prior government experience. He appears to share Trump’s desire to dramatically reshape the U.S.’s relationship with Russia and is also an opponent of U.S. sanctions on the Russian regime after its annexation of Crimea and involvement in Eastern Ukraine. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4598968/russia-kremlin-rex-tillerson-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4598968/russia-kremlin-rex-tillerson-donald-trump/"},"headline":"Russia Is Happy With Donald Trump’s Choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State","datePublished":"2016-12-13T14:00:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:30:59.193Z","description":"Many Russian officials, including President Putin, have a good relationship with Exxon Mobil Corp's Rex Tillerson","url":"https://time.com/4598968/russia-kremlin-rex-tillerson-donald-trump/","keywords":["White House","russia","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt047899e91c5fde27/6988b2be7cdbacc409d568f3/gettyimages-491649600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt047899e91c5fde27/6988b2be7cdbacc409d568f3/gettyimages-491649600.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"BRITAIN-ENERGY-OIL","caption":"BRITAIN-ENERGY-OIL","creditText":"BEN STANSALL—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4598968/russia-kremlin-rex-tillerson-donald-trump/","name":"Russia Is Happy With Donald Trump’s Choice of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State"}}]}] ```