The dust of the U.S. election has settled. According to the Associated Press, on November 23 local time, the U.S. Federal General Administration officially confirmed that Biden won the presidential election and will begin the process of regime transition.
Russian President Putin’s attitude has been attracting much attention after many parties have sent blessings to Biden in advance.
Recently, in an interview with Russian media, in response to the question whether Russia’s failure to send blessings to Biden will damage the relationship between the two countries, Putin said bluntly: It has long been destroyed and cannot be worse.
Speaking about the U.S. election and Russia-US relations on “Russia 1” TV, Putin said he was used to the sharp anti-Russian remarks in the U.S. election.
“European countries have expressed congratulations. That’s their business.” Putin said, “We will not fail to congratulate the newly elected president of the United States. However, the official results of the election need to be determined in accordance with established practice and according to the law. We did not congratulate, there was no ulterior motive in it, and there was no reason to continue to undermine the relations between the two countries.
The U.S. presidential election was held on November 3, and on November 7, most U.S. media determined that Biden defeated Trump in the general election. Although it was not officially confirmed at that time, some leaders and politicians have congratulated Biden and his deputy Harris, including British Prime Minister Johnson, French President Macron, German Prime Minister Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiro Kan, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Indian Prime Minister Modi , Philippine President Duterte, etc.
What is Putin’s attitude? On November 9, AFP quoted Kremlin sources as saying that Putin was waiting for the official results of the U.S. election and would congratulate the winner after the results were obtained.
Russian President spokesman Peskov said that Moscow was ready to cooperate with the President-elect of the United States. He stressed that the cooperation between Russia and the United States will affect not only these two countries, but also the whole world.
Notably, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFall was upset that Moscow did not congratulate Biden on the winner of the U.S. election, according to the website of Russia Today (RT).
McFall on Twitter: “Did Putin join the ranks of world leaders to congratulate Biden? I haven’t seen it yet. If he congratulates, he must send it out.
In the past four years, McFall has missed hardly any opportunity to imply that Russia is exerting influence on the United States in some way. Now, he is obviously disappointed that the Kremlin has not chosen which side in the fiercely competitive election.
In recent years, the relationship between the United States and Russia has continued to decline. On June 13, 2019, the Kremlin released Putin’s interview with Russia’s Peace Television. Putin said that Russia-US relations are “becoming worse and worse”.
In July this year, Peskov said that the relationship between the United States and Russia is almost at its lowest point. There are serious differences between the two countries, both bilateral relations and attitudes towards multilateral affairs. This situation is terrible.
Regarding the relationship between the new U.S. government and Russia, the Russian News Agency quoted Valery Garbuzov, director of the American and Canadian Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying that the significant improvement in U.S.-Russian relations should not be expected after the end of the U.S. presidential election.
Garbuzov said: “There is no need to expect the new face of the White House to turn the situation around. Even Trump often seems to say that he wants to change his relationship with Russia, but after becoming president, the ‘way’ of Russian-US relations has been reversed 180°. It is unlikely to suddenly change from opponents and enemies of geopolitical games to partners.
