“Nothing has changed”: The Kremlin and Putin will not recognize President-elect Biden despite Trump’s announcement

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not recognized President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election, despite Trump’s orders to begin his administration’s transition.

Earlier this week, the Russian president said he had been waiting for “an end to the internal political crisis” before he recognized the elected president.

in a Remarks during an interview Which was broadcast on state television on November 22, the Russian president said that “there is no ulterior motive, that we love someone, or that we do not love someone” by withholding his congratulations to the president-elect.

“We are only waiting for the end of the internal political crisis,” he said, adding that his congratulations would not change the tense relationship between the two governments.

You can’t mess up a bad relationship. “He’s really messed up,” he said.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the US president’s order to start the transition process is “insufficient”. According to TASS.

He said, “Reviews and recounts are still continuing in some states, without which the election results cannot be officially announced.”

His comments come on the heels of similar statements in the wake of Trump’s defeat and refusal to concede, as his legal team filed a series of botched lawsuits to annul the results in several states, relying on baseless allegations of voter fraud and conspiracy theories without meaningful evidence in court. .

The General Services Administration, the federal agency that oversees the presidential transition, recognized Biden as the president-elect on Monday, signaling an end to the president’s electoral challenges.

Mr. Trump announced on Twitter that he had advised Public Security Agency Director Emily Murphy to proceed with transfer protocols “in the interest” of the United States.

On November 9, after Biden’s expected victory in the Electoral College after results emerged from the state of Pennsylvania that effectively sealed his victory, Peskov said Russia would not congratulate a winner before the legal results were announced – although Putin congratulated Trump almost immediately in the 2016 election before Validate the results.

“The current president has announced certain legal measures, so this situation is different, and we think it is right to wait for an official announcement,” Peskov said earlier this month.

He added that “there were no announcements of legal challenges” in the 2016 elections.

In 2016, Putin was among the first world leaders to congratulate the then-candidate Trump. The Russian president issued a statement within hours of Hillary Clinton’s abdication.

After the vote is certified by state election officials, voters from each state will meet at the Electoral College on December 14 to officially cast their ballots.

The president-elect will be inaugurated on January 20.