‘This electioneering can’t help already fragile relations’ – Kremlin on Obama’s Russia remarks
The “Russia card” too often gets the spotlight in the US presidential election campaign, President Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Obama’s recent comments on Russia do not contribute to fragile trust-building efforts.
"Unfortunately, we see continued displays of often hard-core Russophobia," Peskov said Wednesday during his daily conference call with reporters. "We can only express regret in this regard."
"This rhetoric, which is being formulated in electoral campaign style... is unlikely to help fledgling fragile attempts to build at least some sort of mutual trust."
READ MORE: Obama slams Trump’s appearance on RT, compares Putin to Saddam Hussein
On Tuesday, Obama blasted Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump for offering a soundbite to the Larry King Politicking Show that airs on RT.
The US president went further, comparing Putin to Saddam Hussein.
“When the interviewer asks him [Trump], ‘why do you support this guy [Putin]?’ He says, ‘He is a strong guy. Look, he’s got an 82 percent poll rating.’ Well, yes, Saddam Hussein had a 90 percent poll rating. If you control the media and you’ve taken away everybody's civil liberties, and you jail dissidents, that's what happens,” Obama told a Hillary Clinton rally in Philadelphia.
WATCH: Iraq, Hillary and baseball: Donald Trump talks to Larry King (RT EXCLUSIVE)
Peskov deplored what he says is now becoming a common practice.
“The ‘Russia card’ and the ‘card’ of our president at times literally determine the election process in the United States. It would be much more pleasant though if this card played a positive role, [was used] in a positive way,” he said.
There is no reason to exaggerate the significance of these “unfortunate” statements which were made by President Obama, Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told RT.
“I’m sure [Obama is] a person who is educated enough to know this kind of comparison is absolutely absurd. So, you know, sometimes politicians say things which they come to regret later, and unfortunately in the past few months we’ve lived and worked in an environment where in the United States they were throwing around all sorts of statements about Russia,” Churkin told RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze.
It is not surprising that there have been a lot of argument about Putin’s role in the world and in Russia, given that the Russian President is “an extremely popular leader in the United States,” Churkin added. At the same time the current situation in the US presidential elections is “very strange” and “unparalleled” in history, with Russia becoming “a very active talking point for all the candidates.”
“But as far as our foreign policy establishment is concerned, I think we need to keep trying to do things with the United States, which we have been doing in the past few months and years despite all the difficulties,” Churkin concluded.
