Putin Won’t Congratulate ‘Unfriendly’ Trump on Winning Election, Says Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t join the chorus of global leaders congratulating Donald Trump on his historic election win, his spokesman stating U.S.-Russian relations are “at their lowest point in history”.

Political leaders from across Europe sent letters of congratulations to once and future President Donald Trump on Wednesday, some out of a sense of genuine pleasure and others in a bid at damage control, but the Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin takes no pleasure from the news.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told domestic press on Wednesday that he was not aware that Putin had any plans to offer congratulations, remarking: “Let’s not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state… It is practically impossible to make relations between the United States and Russia any worse as they are already at their lowest point in history”.

Peskov said in further remarks that Russia would judge its feeling towards the incoming administration, due January 2025, on “statements on issues that are on our agenda, when we receive them, and on his first concrete steps”, but stated that Russia remained open to a “constructive dialogue” with the United States. Indeed, Russia has offered a ‘dialogue’ over the Ukraine war several times in the past, but with conditions attached so extreme Moscow will have known full well nobody would possibly take them up on the offer.

While Russia played it cool, with Speaker of the upper house of the Russian Parliament Valentina Matviyenko remarking “I don’t think that the results of the election in the United States can have any dramatic or fundamental significance for us”, it is nevertheless the case Russia’s war in Ukraine is very much in Trump’s sights.

Donald Trump had told Breitbart News earlier in the election he wanted to bring peace to Ukraine quickly — possibly before he even got the keys to the White House — remarking “I want to see the death stopping”. He said in August:

Trump said he knows Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and believes he can negotiate peace to end the “death” and “destruction” if elected again on Nov. 5.

“I know both heads of the countries,” Trump said. “I know President Putin very well. I want to see the death stopping. There’s death and there’s destruction. They are destroying the whole fabric of a certain part of the world. I want to get it negotiated, and get it done.”

… “You look at the heritage of the country—the cities are mostly knocked down,” Trump said, describing Ukraine. “They’re flattened. They’re just totally flattened. Have you ever seen some of these cities? There’s not a building standing. The country has been devastated. So I want to get it solved and I will be able to get it solved. And I’d like to do it before I get to the White House after I’m president-elect.”

Contrary to the Kremlin’s public aloof position on the Trump victory today, British newspaper The Times cites a Russian opposition news site to claim Putin and allies had already, in fact, secretly congratulated Trump in private. The assertion was offered without supporting evidence, however.