Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he was ready to work with any United States (US) leader and would congratulate whoever emerges the winner of the US presidential election once all the legal formalities are settled, Russian news agencies reported.
Putin has withheld comment, while President Donald Trump has been taking legal action to try to overturn his November 3 election defeat to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.
“We will work with anyone who has the trust of the American people,” Putin was quoted as saying on state television.
But the winner must be named either by the opposing party, which should acknowledge the victory of their opponents, or after the final results of the election are confirmed in a legitimate, legal way, Putin said.
That follows previous Kremlin comment that it would wait for the official results of the US presidential election before commenting on its outcome.
In the video below, US President-elect Joe Biden delivers his victory speech:
Late in October Kremlin said that Joe Biden’s assessment of Russia as the biggest threat to US national security was wrong and encouraged hatred of Russia.
The comments came just over a week before Biden faces Donald Trump in the NovemberUS presidential election.
“We absolutely do not agree,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call, when asked to comment on Biden’s assessment.
“We can only regret that absolute hatred of the Russian Federation is spread in this way.”
Moscow’s ties with Washington sank to post-Cold War lows in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Biden was serving as vice president under President Barack Obama at the time.
Relations were further soured after US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election to tilt the contest in Trump’s favour, an allegation Moscow has denied.
Russia dismissed accusations by US intelligence agencies of trying to interfere with this year’s election.
Biden named Russia as Washington’s most serious global threat in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, while calling China the biggest competitor.
“Well, I think the biggest threat to America right now in terms of breaking up our security and our alliances is Russia,” said Biden.
