Vladimir Putin Congratulates Biden For Electoral College Victory

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Joe Biden on his U.S/ presidential election victory on Tuesday, a day after the Electoral College confirmed Biden as the winner.

Unlike other world leaders who offered their congratulations to Biden within days of the November election, Putin waited for the official election results before congratulating the winner because it was the “correct” thing to do, according to the Kremlin.

A Kremlin readout produced on Tuesday about Putin’s well wishes to Biden stated the following: “Vladimir Putin wished the President-elect every success and expressed confidence that Russia and the United States, which bear special responsibility for global security and stability, despite their difference can truly contribute to solving many problems and challenges that the world is currently facing.”

In an interview with 60 Minutes on CBS in late October, Biden referred to Russia as the “main threat” to U.S. national security. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Biden’s statement saying it displayed “hatred towards the Russian Federation.”

During the election last month, Karin von Hippel, director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, told CNN that “Biden will work hard with partners and allies to push back on whatever Russia is up to, whether it’s trying to assassinate Russian citizens overseas, or kill their own opposition leaders like the alleged attempt with [Alexey] Navalny in Siberia, or activities in Syria, Crimea, So I do think he [Putin] knows that there will be much more of an effort to try to contain Russia.” 

Biden’s relationship with Russia is expected to be vastly different than Trump’s. Biden is assured to treat foreign interference “as an adversarial act” and refrain from praising Putin as much as Trump did during his presidency.

Despite past conflict, Putin said he is ready to cooperate and connect with Biden and the U.S. government. “Russian-American cooperation based on the principles of equality and mutual respect would meet the interests of people in both countries as well as the entire international community,” he said.