NEW YORK, September 18. /TASS/. US Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden considers Russia an opponent, not an enemy. He voiced this opinion at an event hosted by CNN in Pennsylvania.

Answering the question of the moderator, whether he considered Russia an enemy, the presidential candidate responded: "I believe Russia is an opponent. I really do." He added: "Putin’s overwhelming objective is to break up NATO, to fundamentally alter the circumstance in Europe so he doesn’t have to face an entire NATO contingent."

Biden was also asked about the alleged election meddling by Russia and his reaction to these statements. In response, the former US vice-president assured that Russia will "pay a price" if such attempts are proven. He referred to election interference as a "violation of our sovereignty," saying that in this case "they’ll pay a price for it, and it’ll be an economic price." He didn’t go into specifics, telling CNN anchor Anderson Cooper that it "would not be prudent" to do so at this time. He also asserted again that Moscow doesn’t want him to become president.

US intelligence accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 US presidential election. These meddling allegations were investigated by then DOJ Special Counsel Robert Mueller for almost two years. On April 18, 2019, the US Department of Justice publicized his final report, where Mueller acknowledged that no collusion whatsoever had taken place between Russian authorities and then US presidential candidate Donald Trump who had won the election. Trump himself repeatedly dismissed all speculation and suspicions of any wrongful contacts with Russian officials during his campaign. Moscow also repeatedly rejected rumors of attempting to influence the US election. Recently, FBI director Christopher Wray made a statement resuscitating the prior disproven allegations that Russia is supposedly trying again to actively influence the US electoral process through "malign foreign influence."

The likelihood of US election interference is habitually trotted out by American authorities baselessly claiming that Russia was ‘complicit’ in such actions back in 2016. Moscow has repeatedly rejected these accusations. In February, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the Kremlin regrettably believed that there would be ever more news of alleged attempts by Russia to interfere in the US election as November 2020 approaches. According to Peskov, these claims "are nowhere near close to the truth."