Kremlin assures Russia would support any US leader seeking to cultivate bilateral ties

Russian Politics & Diplomacy July 13, 2017, 15:24

Peskov’s statement comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s remarks that Vladimir Putin might have been ‘happier’ with former US presidential candidate Hilary Clinton

MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. Russia has been always interested in an American president, who seeks a positive path for developing bilateral ties, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

"Our interest rests with those politicians, who after taking up the reins of the United States would express a positive approach to developing bilateral ties," Peskov told journalists adding that the same opinion had been previously voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Peskov’s statement comes in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s remarks that Russian President Vladimir Putin might have been ‘happier’ with former US presidential candidate Hilary Clinton had she won the election.

"Russia is interested in building friendly and mutually beneficial relations [with the United States], and we certainly commend all politicians, who pursue the very same objectives," Peskov stated reiterating Putin’s earlier statements that Russia had never and would never meddle into the domestic affairs of other countries, where the leadership must be elected by the will of people.

Putin and Trump held their first official talks last week on July 7 on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg. Commenting on the meeting in an interview with CBN TV broadcaster on Wednesday, Trump said that Russian leader Putin would have been happier if Hilary Clinton won the presidential election last year in the United States.

"We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I'm a big military person," Trump said in an exclusive interview with CBN. "As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated."

"That's what Putin doesn't like about me," the US president stated. "And that's why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military, he doesn't want to see that."

Trump, however, positively assessed his meeting with Putin in Hamburg last week, saying: "we had a good meeting, it was a face to face meeting, it was a long meeting."

"It was two hours and 15 minutes," Trump said. "Everyone was surprised by the amount of time but that was a good thing and not a bad thing. Yeah, I think we get along very well and I think that's a good thing, that's not a bad thing."

"Well he wants what's good for Russia, and I want what's good for the United States," Trump said.

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