MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. Disagreements that emerged during the administration of Barack Obama have led to the current degradation of relations with the US, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the RT TV channel.
"The president met him (Joseph Biden), but still, mostly he was meeting with his superior then (Barack Obama), so the dialogue was mostly with Obama. That wasn’t an easy dialogue, especially the last six months of Barack Obama's presidency," the spokesman said. He noted that "there were a lot of disagreements that were probably a harbinger of the degradation that occurred in our relations during Trump’s presidency."
At the same time the spokesman declined to answer a question what the Kremlin expects from the administration of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris. "I have no right [to comment on this] before the official election results," the Kremlin representative said.
Russia's preferences
Russia would prefer to see a US president who would be eager to reanimate bilateral relations, the presidential spokesman stated. "We will be interacting with any president who will be elected by the Americans themselves," he said, adding that this is precisely what the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, said more than once. "Of course, we would like to see a president who would wish to reanimate bilateral relations somehow."
"We will show respect for any choice of the American people," Peskov quoted Putin as saying. The Kremlin official stressed that Russia had never interfered in US internal affairs and would never interfere in the future, but it would not tolerate US meddling in its own affairs, either.
"I believe, this should have become clear to the man in the street by now," he noted.
Congratulations to president-elect
"The Russian president will certainly send a congratulatory message to the candidate who will be declared president-elect," Peskov said, adding that "it will be done after the official results of the election are announced."
"As far as we understand, no one has been declared president-elect so far," Peskov stressed.
At the same time, he did not say what Russia would do if the election’s results were challenged in court. "It’s not our business to decide when to announce the official results," the Kremlin spokesman noted.
US take on its global role
The United States as a former hegemon in the international scene finds it hard to adjust itself to the realities of multipolarity, which results in the collapse of international institutions, Dmitry Peskov elaborated.
He warned against focusing entirely on Russian-US relations and called for taking a broader look at the situation, in particular, the fact that the world was in the process of transition from the multipolar system to a multipolar one.
"This is a very painful process. The former single pole resists this, although I do not know whether this resistance is conscious or subconscious. The former single pole has problems with getting accustomed to a new system of coordinates," Peskov said.
In his opinion this explains the collapse of the system of international law and international institutions. "Some countries lay claim to performing the role of international institutions all the time. Also, there are countries whose role is dwindling and there are others whose role is growing. And some international institutions lose their role altogether," he said.
Peskov put the emphasis on the idea the United Nations has been and still is the sole universal international institution that the world cannot do without. Other basic institutions in the same class, Peskov said, are the Security Council and the ‘nuclear quintet’ members possessing the right of veto.
"You know that this is President Putin’s stance. It is a cornerstone of international security," Peskov said.
On November 3, American citizens headed to the polls to elect 435 representatives to the House, 35 senators out of 100 to the Senate, and the President and Vice President of the United States. The November race for the White House pit Democratic contender Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris against incumbent US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence of the Republican Party. In addition, voters decided on 13 US state and territorial governorships, and numerous other local elections were held.
The winner of the presidential race is still not known. Though the vote count is still underway, major US media outlets project that the Democratic contender has presumptively won the presidential election. Fox News and Associated Press have put Biden over the top, beyond the needed 270 vote threshold. Trump is challenging the current outcome, claiming irregularities in the ballot processing in key swing states, and has filed lawsuits to fight his case in court.