While we are yet to see a congratulatory message from the Kremlins, despite the widely held assumption before the election that the Kremlin would favour a Trump victory, Russian officials and state media have stopped short of celebrating the outcome of yesterday’s vote.
In his daily press briefing this morning, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware if the Russian president had plans to congratulate Trump.
“Let us not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country that directly and indirectly is involved in the war against our state,” Peskov told reporters, external.
There was similar caution voiced on state TV, where the messaging is tightly controlled by the Kremlin.
MP Andrei Isayev of the ruling United Russia party told the Russian political talk show 60 Minutes that they are “not harbouring false hopes. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are our friends”.
The show’s host Olga Skabeyeva added that Russia “does not at all believe” that Trump could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, a promise repeatedly made by the former president.
But there was also welcome acknowledgement that Trump could significantly reduce the flow of American military aid for Ukraine.
