Russia warned on Thursday continuing “uncertainty” over the outcome of the U.S. presidential election could damage the global economy.
“Any uncertainty in the most powerful world economy in one of the largest countries has and could potentially have negative consequences for global affairs, first of all for the global economy. Meanwhile, we will see how long this uncertainty period lasts and how strong this influence is,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov said the Russian government has no official position on the current state of the election count.
“The results of the US election haven’t been announced yet and it’s impossible to make comments in the current situation. We would rather take our time and wait for the situation to become clearer,” he said.
Pressed further for comment, Peskov said any comment made by the Russian government would be like waving “a red rag to a bull,” given American allegations of Russian meddling in previous elections.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was less circumspect, claiming on Thursday that the “obvious shortcomings of the American electoral system are evident” after Tuesday’s vote.
Zakharova said these shortcomings are “partly due to the archaic nature of the relevant legislation and the lack of regulation in a number of fundamental points.”
Russia, by contrast, simply makes it illegal to run against the strongman in power, stuffs its ballot boxes with more advanced (but less subtle) techniques, and takes very strong measures to adjust the attitudes of anyone who complains too strenuously about the process.
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, having narrowly survived his most recent attitude adjustment session, humorously commented on the U.S. race on Wednesday morning: “Woke up to check who won on Twitter. Still unclear. Now that’s what I call elections.”
The Moscow Times found Russian politicians generally more pessimistic about the situation in America than Navalny.
“The election results are the worst for America. Both candidates declared victory, while Trump also [claimed] multiple election irregularities. This election certainly won’t have a legitimate outcome. No matter who wins in court, half of Americans won’t consider him the legitimate president,” lawmaker Vyacheslav Niknonov of the governing United Russia party predicted.
Other Russian politicians anticipated little change in U.S.-Russia relations no matter which candidate wins, and took the lack of complaints about Russian meddling in the 2020 election as a sign the issue of “foreign interference” is no longer relevant in American politics.
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