The Russian Orthodox Church's foreign affairs spokesman has said that the election of Donald Trump as US president "gives hope for improvement of the entire system of international relations".

Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, said in an interview with Interfax-Religion yesterday: "I don't think we should fall into euphoria about the Republican candidate's victory. Time will show what kind of president he will be, whether he will fulfill the promises that he gave during the election campaign. But his election gives hope for improvement of the entire system of international relations, for the creation of a unified global coalition against terrorism."

He added that the rhetoric of Hillary Clinton failed to convince American voters "and even active support from incumbent President Obama did not give her more votes".

Alfeyev portrayed the result as a vote against the status quo, saying: "The choice was not only between two persons. Essentially, the Americans were asked the following question: do you want everything to stay as it was or do you want changes? And the American people voted for changes."

He was highly critical of US policy in recent years towards the Middle East. "American policies in the Middle East, starting from the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and to the recent events in Syria, was, in my view, shortsighted and wrong," Alfeyev said. "Overthrowing the regimes that existed in the Middle Eastern countries one after another, allegedly in the name of democracy, America did not lead the region to democracy or prosperity. On the contrary, it provoked chaos, mass exodus of civilians, genocide of ethnic and religious minorities."

He went on: "Trump spoke about all these things directly and clearly. He criticised the American government for [its] Middle Eastern policies, for giving up alliance relations with Russia. And the people of America heard him."