The upcoming presidential contest in the US will not fundamentally alter Russian-American relations, President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin spoke with heads of international news agencies on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
“We believe no serious changes will happen after the elections,” the Russian leader explained, in response to a question from Reuters.
Putin reminded reporters that he had already commented on this issue, describing the incumbent US president Joe Biden as “an old-school politician” and “more predictable” than his predecessor and challenger Donald Trump.
“Everyone took my statement about Biden as some kind of joke at his expense,” Putin noted, adding that the American president’s reaction – to attack and insult the Russian leader – just proved his point that Biden was predictable.
Putin pointed out that Russia “never had any special relations” with Trump, whom the Democrats in 2016 accused of being a kind of Russian agent. The Republican president had in fact introduced “massive sanctions” against Russia and exited the INF treaty.
By prosecuting Trump in court, however, the Americans are “burning themselves up from the inside, their state, their political system,” Putin told reporters. “They are burning it down to the ground.”
The entire world can see that the persecution of Trump is just abuse of the American judicial system for political purposes, the Russian president said. He pointed to a spike in Trump’s popularity and fundraising after the felony conviction in New York as proof that Americans don’t believe in the impartiality of their justice system anymore.
“The current administration is making one mistake after another,” Putin said.
Asked if a change in the White House might translate into a change of US policy on Ukraine, the Russian president said it would depend on the next administration’s goals.
If their objective is to make the US stronger and build better relations with the rest of the world instead, “then something might change,” Putin replied.
“Nobody in the US cares about Ukraine’s interests,” Putin said. Americans are “not fighting for Ukraine or the Ukrainian people, they are fighting for their own grandeur and global leadership.”