Moscow: Donald Trump was elected president, capping a remarkable comeback four years after he was voted out of the White House and ushering in a new American leadership likely to test democratic institutions at home and relations abroad. Trump, 78, recaptured the White House on Wednesday by securing more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, Edison Research projected, following a campaign of dark rhetoric that deepened the polarisation in the country.
Reacting to Trump's projected victory, Russia, downplayed his claim but said it would make no difference whatsoever wins the presidency. However, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in a press conference said, "If anything changes in the US policy and any proposals to us appear, we will be ready to examine them in terms of matching Russia’s interests".
"In general, it makes no difference for Russia what the election outcome will be, given the two-party consensus that emerged in the United States regarding the confrontation toward our country," she said when asked about many in the West and Ukraine are disseminating the idea that Russian authorities are seeking Trump’s victory because he would allegedly end the war. Is there any material difference, in your opinion, between the victory of this or that candidate".
She asserted that Russia expects the next US president should focus on solving his own country’s problems and not looking for adventures tens of thousands of miles away from the US coast.
"We wish the American nation to overcome the crisis of democracy and the split in society," she added.
The Kremlin reacted cautiously on Wednesday after Donald Trump declared victory, saying the US was still a hostile state and that time would tell if Trump's rhetoric on ending the Ukraine war translated into reality. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the Soviet Union and the US came close to nuclear war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump had made some important statements about wanting to end the Ukraine war during his campaign, but only time would tell if they lead to action.
"Let us not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country, which is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state" (in Ukraine)," Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said he was not aware of any plans by President Vladimir Putin to congratulate Trump on his victory and that relations with Washington were at a historic low. "We have repeatedly said that the US is able to contribute to the end of this conflict. This cannot be done overnight, but... the US is capable of changing the trajectory of its foreign policy. Will this happen, and if so, how ... we will see after (the US president's inauguration in) January."
Russian and US diplomats say relations between the world's two largest nuclear powers have only been worse during the depths of the Cold War. Russian officials from Putin down said ahead of the election that it made no difference to Moscow who won the White House, even as Kremlin-guided state media coverage showed a preference for Trump. Kirill Dmitriev, the influential head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, said a Trump victory could be a chance to repair ties.
(With inputs from agency)
