Relations between Russia and the United States will remain as bad as they are today, regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s US midterm elections, the Russian presidency (Kremlin) declared on Wednesday.
“These elections, in essence, cannot change anything. Our relations are bad at the moment and will continue to be bad,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.
Peskov admitted that Tuesday’s elections are important, but considered that their weight for the future of relations between Moscow and Washington “in the short and medium term” should not be overestimated.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated significantly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year, plunging Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
The partial results of the US midterm elections showed a slight Republican advantage in the House of Representatives, while the composition of the Senate, controlled by Democrats, is yet to be determined.
A Republican majority in both houses of Congress could create difficulties for Democrat Joe Biden in the second half of his presidential term, including a possible blockage of aid to Ukraine, as the researcher and professor at the Nova School of Law, admitted to Lusa, Felipe Pathe Duarte. .
However, a complete change in Washington’s position on the war in Ukraine has been considered unlikely.
Relations between Moscow and Washington were closer during the presidency of Donald Trump (2017-2021), so analysts have considered that a favorable result for Biden’s predecessor would please the Kremlin.
In recent years, Russia has been accused of interfering in US elections, including the 2016 presidential election that brought Trump to power, through social media influence campaigns.
US authorities have recently denounced concerted actions by Russian and Iranian hacking groups to interfere in the midterm elections.
“We are so used to these accusations that we don’t even pay attention to them anymore,” Peskov said at today’s press conference, according to AFP.
Despite this devaluation of the Kremlin, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, close to President Vladimir Putin, admitted Moscow’s interference in the US elections on Monday.
“We interfere. We interfere and we will continue to do so. Carefully, precisely, surgically, in our own unique way,” said Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s cook” for having been one of the Kremlin’s purveyors.
At the end of September, Prigozhin acknowledged having founded the Wagner paramilitary group in 2014, which is now fighting in Ukraine, admitting its presence in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
Source: TSF
