MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed hope that the two US presidential nominees would refrain from mentioning Vladimir Putin’s name as a political tool to win points with American voters.

Commenting on last night’s debate between US Vice President Kamala Harris and her rival, former US President Donald Trump, Peskov said: "Of course, we noticed that both [US presidential] hopefuls mentioned our president and our country <...>. Putin’s name is being used as an instrument in the internal political tug-of-war in the United States. We are not very happy with this and we do believe that they will stop mentioning our president’s name."

The United States remains "negative and unfriendly" toward Russia anyway, regardless of which of the two parties their presidential nominees represent, Peskov argued. "That’s perhaps the concern of the US electorate, not ours, to give assessments of their candidates. We have our own concerns, and our own goals to focus on," he concluded.

Americans who watched the debate between Harris and Trump saw the current Vice President as being more in tune with their problems, with 44% of viewers believing she got the better of the former reality TV star on stage, according to a poll conducted by CNN. Meanwhile, 40% of viewers thought that Trump won the debate, the poll showed.

The US presidential election is slated for November 5. Incumbent US President Joe Biden was supposed to represent the Democrats at the election but he decided to drop out of the race after mounting calls from his party following his poor performance in June in the debate with Trump who later became the Republican presidential nominee. Biden endorsed Harris to replace him. The Democratic Party officially nominated Harris in early August.