Vladimir Putin and his top team seem to have chosen a rather unorthodox way to congratulate Donald Trump on his re-election to the White House.
The Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that while Putin was open to dialogue with the States, he was “not aware of the president’s plans to congratulate Trump.”
Peskov claimed that the US “currently has the opposition position” to Moscow and is an “unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in a war against Russia”.
The war in Ukraine began in 2022 when Putin ordered the invasion of his European neighbour in a land grab.
Western allies have been providing Ukraine with funding and weaponry to help it fight off Russia, but have deliberately avoided being pulled directly into the conflict so as not to spark a global conflict.
Still, Trump has spoken favourably of Putin over the years – calling his invasion “genius” and “savvy”, and not denying reporting that they’ve spoken over the phone since he left the White House – so Peskov’s suggestion they would not be talking directly was a surprise.
However, other outlets have suggested that Trump did receive informal congratulations from “acquaintances” around Putin and his top officials.
According to Russian independent news outlet Verstka, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, deputy chair of the security council Dmitry Medvedev, chair of the board of Sberbank German Gref, and speakers of the two houses of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko and Vyacheslav Volodin, all sent their regards to Trump, not by phone, but by messenger.
Reportedly, the Russian authorities “have relations” with Trump which the “Kremlin wants to maintain” because Moscow has “certain hopes” for the incoming president.
Peskov also played down expectations that Trump would end the war within 24 hours of getting into office, as the Republican has repeatedly promised.
According to the Kyiv Independent newspaper, Putin’s spokesperson said: “You can’t end the Ukraine conflict overnight.”
Still, it is widely believed that the Russia govrnment was rooting for a Trump victory as he has refused to say he wants Ukraine to win the war, just that he wants it to end – sparking fears the Republican intends to push Kyiv to cede land to Russia.
Putin’s ally, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, even admitted as much on Wednesday.
Posting on his official Telegram account, he said: “Trump has one useful quality for us: as a businessman to the core, he mortally dislikes spending money on various hangers–on and stupid hanger-on allies, on bad charity projects and on voracious international organisations.”
Suggesting Trump would not want to spend money on the Ukrainian authorities, he continued: “The question is how much Trump will be forced to give to the war. He’s stubborn, but the system is stronger.”
However, Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6, told Times Radio this morning that we should not jump to conclusions about what Trump will do in Ukraine.
He said: “The risk, of course, is that the lever he uses to force Zelensky to the table is the withdrawal of support, financial support and armament support to Ukraine. That’s extremely worrying.
“But we don’t actually know that’s what he’s going to do yet.
“And I think one should be, as I say, very careful.
“Zelensky’s had contacts with Trump. Maybe Trump, if Putin rejects his deal, will react very badly towards Putin. And there are all sorts of dimensions to this problem.”
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