Top Kremlin adviser Sergei Glazyev today told Russia’s news service that the election of Donald Trump by the United States may ultimately avert World War III between NATO and the Russian Federation, saying that Trump might symbolize a change in course for the US.

Glazyev said many within the Russian government saw Hillary Clinton as a “symbol of war,” and that the American voters’ rejection of Clinton in favor of Trump showed a rejection of that level of hostility. Russian officials have also praised Trump, saying he appears to have the same foreign policy mindset as Vladimir Putin.

All this talk of embracing Trump, however, may simply reflect Russia’s happiness that Clinton didn’t win, as Clinton campaigned heavily on being hostile toward Russia, accusing Russia of plotting against her campaign, and talking openly about military action in Syria designed to get “military leverage” against Russia.

Since the regime change in Ukraine saw the replacement of a long-time Russian ally with a pro-West government, NATO in general and the US in particular have been stepping up military deployments along Russia’s border in Eastern Europe, with some 300,000 NATO troops deployed in the Baltic states for a battle with Russia.

Clinton was positioning herself as a continuation of that anti-Russia buildup, and more hawkish, which makes it pretty clear that Russia would’ve seen her election as another step toward open warfare.