Trump's chosen Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, on Russia. 

He calls Putin an "authoritarian" and "war criminal" who wants to reform the Soviet Union. He attacks the Biden administration for not sending Ukraine enough weapons quickly enough. 

Hegseth is an absolutely rabid militarist, who worked at America's torture base in Guantanamo Bay and wrote a book about how we should do more war crimes. 

If this is who Trump has in his cabinet, his promise to "end the wars" looks increasingly shaky. 

Adding, better choices, but not high in the cabinet: 

Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to lead Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. 
President-Elect Trump announced that billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency. 
Trump said that the pair will work together to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies." 

Adding: 

Maria Zakharova stated that the ban on international election observation in 17 US states is a direct violation of Washington's commitments to the OSCE. 

She emphasized that this ban hinders the transparency of the electoral process.