Putin “has no plans” to congratulate Donald Trump and the United States remains a “hostile state,” says the Kremlin

Vladimir Putin has no immediate plans to congratulate Donald Trump on his election victory, according to the Kremlin, as he continues to view the United States as “unfriendly” toward Russia.

The dictator’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that relations between the two countries are at a historic low and that it is practically impossible for them to worsen.

Moscow is closely watching developments and analyzing statements made by American politicians about Russia, he said, urging people not to forget that the United States is “directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state.”

Peskov said the United States was capable of changing the trajectory of its foreign policy, but “we’ll see in January,” when Trump takes office, if that happens.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quick to congratulate Trump. saying in X that his “peace through strength” approach could help bring “just peace” closer as the war against Russia drags on.

The statement is widely seen as a shrewd political move by Zelensky as he seeks to bolster US support and aid to Ukraine.

“We have strong and continued bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States,” he wrote in a scathing line.

He remembered the ‘great meeting’ he had with Trump in September, despite the very public tensions between the two politicians at the time.

Along with Zelensky, Trump had touted his working relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Trump boasted during his campaign that he could “end the war” within 24 hours if elected, hinting that he could withdraw US funding and force Ukraine to negotiate with Russia.

He called Zelensky “the biggest salesman in history” in June, and his running mate, JD Vance, has been a fierce critic of giving more aid to Ukraine.

While Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has taken a hard line against Russia during her tenure as vice president, Trump is known to admire Putin.

The influential head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said after the results came out today that Trump’s victory opened new opportunities to reset relations between Moscow and Washington.

Kirill Dmitriev, who has had contacts with Trump’s team in the past, stated that Trump’s victory “demonstrates that ordinary Americans are tired of the lies, incompetence and unprecedented malice of the Biden administration.” .

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That Putin won’t talk about the result won’t be a surprise: The Russian leader rarely comments on US elections and has previously promised to “work with any American leader.”

But he criticized the U.S. judicial and political systems in July following Trump’s felony conviction, saying they were being used by the former president’s enemies to hurt his re-election chances.

“They (the United States) are burning from within, their State, their political system,” he stated.

It has been widely suggested that Trump could be a more favorable choice for Putin as he is more likely to reduce the flow of Western munitions to kyiv.

Timothy Colton of the Harvard Academy of International and Regional Studies said Kremlin leaders are “generally convinced that nothing good is going to come out of the election from Russia’s point of view.”

But he added that, overall, Trump ‘is probably his preference; He is more of a well-known person.

Putin caught listeners off guard in September when he gave a mocking answer to the question of who he would prefer as president, which also included a jab at Joe Biden.

“Our ‘favorite,’ if you can call it that, was the current president, Mr. Biden,” he told an audience at an economic forum in the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok.

But he was knocked out of the race and advised all his followers to support Mrs Harris.

“Well, we’ll do it, we’ll support her,” he said sarcastically, citing her “expressive, infectious laugh” that shows she’s “doing well.”