Moscow – Joseph R. The morning after Biden Jr. was elected President of the United States, the Kremlin met with President Vladimir V. Published Putin’s congratulatory message.
It was the 60th birthday of the Moscow theater director.
Unlike his Western European counterparts, who quickly posted congratulations on Saturday, Mr Putin did not issue a statement about the presidential-elect since Sunday night in Moscow. Four years ago, the Kremlin delivered a message to President Trump within hours of calling the race on election night on American television networks.
“Putin is a good soldier and does not hang his tail in front of his enemies,” said Sergei A., a pro-Kremlin analyst. Markov said.
Early indications are that Mr Putin is preparing for a deeper anti-US relationship with the next US president. Mr Trump has never heeded Russia’s hopes of a rookie pro-Washington deal between Washington and Moscow, while his first US foreign policy has sunk into the Kremlin’s desire to weaken Western ties and expand Russian influence around the world.
Mr. Biden, by contrast, is a president-elect who Mr. Putin already has many reasons to fear. Mr Biden sees Russia as America’s biggest security threat, promises to rebuild strained relations with European allies and, as vice president, worked actively to support pro-Western politicians in Ukraine fleeing the war with Russia.
For Russia’s ruling class, Mr. Biden, 77, was the preferred candidate for the American “deep state” – a vast network of spies and diplomats who, according to the Kremlin, are working to weaken Mr. Trump and improve his relations with Russia. Unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Biden, many Russians think he is the American politician they consider the most: someone willing to intervene around the world in the name of democratic ideals rather than respecting the sphere of influence and joining Moscow. In hard-nosed talk.
“There you have it, the infamous deep state that Trump promised to liberate,” Mikhail V. Leontiev, a commentator, described Mr Biden on prime-time news in Russia on Saturday. “If these guys don’t try to get involved in all of our business, and the potential winner aims to get involved in all of the world’s businesses, we won’t give a damn about it.”
In recent days, as the votes of the swing states have been counted, Russian state television has increasingly accepted Mr. Trump’s claim that Democrats had rigged the election. A reporter for Russia’s state-run Channel 1 in Washington, D.C., mocked Mr Biden’s victory on the street as he “cried, roared and got drunk.” “Not a country but a chaotic communal apartment, with a criminal flair,” he said.
The vitriol on Kremlin-controlled television, and the lack of quick congratulations for Mr. Biden, was notable in that Mr. Putin appeared to be trying to distance himself from Mr. Trump, as Mr. Biden has emerged as a clear favorite in recent months. . Some Russian analysts and politicians also speculated that Washington’s new leadership in Washington could be a good thing for Moscow.
“Among the Russian elite, Trump sees himself as an object,” wrote political critic Tatiana Stanovaya in an essay entitled “Farewell to Trump.” He added that the Kremlin also had “a sense of Trump fatigue”.
Indeed, Mr. Putin chose this fall not to give it to Mr. Trump, who would have won a valuable foreign policy victory: the emerging New Start nuclear weapons deal between the countries, the rest of the main arms control treaty.
Mr. Trump’s chief negotiator, Marshall Billingsia, went on to announce that the two leaders had entered into a “gentleman’s agreement” for a new conversation. Deal. However, within hours, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei A. Ryabkov called the Trump administration an illusion. “Washington describes what is wanted, not real,” he said.
Instead, in a television interview last month, Mr Putin praised Mr Biden for preparing to extend the treaty. And in a matter that could be lauded for retreating, he praised the Democrats’ left-wing ideals by sharing with the party of which Mr. Putin was at one time a member: the Communists.
“We will work with the future president of the United States – the American people to vote for him,” Putin said.
The CIA said earlier this year that Mr. Putin appeared to be interfering in the election on behalf of Mr. Trump. The Kremlin has refused to interfere in American politics, and many analysts in Moscow have noted that fresh, reported allegations of Russian interference have not surfaced since election day from the United States.
Some politicians and analysts have speculated that Mr Trump’s departure from the White House could ease US anger over Russian interference in the 201st election.
“It’s not like we think a lot in Washington, but the main irritation can go away,” Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, wrote on Facebook. “For example, there is no reason to resume talks on arms control? We are definitely ready. ”
Mr Biden could also benefit Russia by bringing the United States back to a nuclear deal with Iran, an agreement with which Moscow is a party, another Russian legislator, Leonid E. Said Slutsky. In 2018, Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the deal, which President Barack Obama helped broker between world powers to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Even on Sunday, the Kremlin remained the mother of Mr. Putin’s staunch domestic opponent – opposition leader Alexei A. Navalni – Give best wishes Mr Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris on Twitter. He also congratulated Americans on holding “free and fair elections” indirectly on the Putin government.
“This is a privilege that is not available to all countries,” Mr. Navalny, who is recovering from an attack with a nerve agent in Siberia, wrote. “Hope for a new level of cooperation between Russia and the US.”
The Kremlin and its supporters have long claimed that, without evidence, opposition activists such as Mr. Navalny are the tools by which America’s “deep state” implements its anti-Russian agenda. Russian news media often say that the United States has engineered a “color revolution” in the former Soviet Union.
Mr Markov, a pro-Kremlin analyst, said he expected Mr Biden to increase support for Mr Putin’s domestic opponents – perhaps preaching a message from the Russian state media during Mr Biden’s presidency.
“I believe that funding for the color revolution against Putin will grow rapidly,” Mr Markov said.
Mr Putin has portrayed himself as Russia’s defender against the invading West. Sam Green, director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London, said Russia’s tough policy in the United States could play to its advantage.
“Putin’s legitimacy is an important part of the conflict with the West and the United States,” Mr Green said.
