Putin congratulates Biden on US election win after weeks of silence
Russian president Vladimir Putin has congratulated Joe Biden on winning the US presidential election after weeks of holding out.
Mr Putin's message to Mr Biden came a day after the Electoral College confirmed Mr Biden as the nation's next president, ratifying his November victory in an authoritative state-by-state repudiation of President Donald Trump's refusal to concede that he had lost.
The Kremlin had said earlier that the Russian president would hold off on congratulating Mr Biden until the winner was officially confirmed.
"We are just waiting for the end of the internal political confrontation," Mr Putin said last month, referring to numerous Republican challenges to the vote count.
In his message, Mr Put in wished Mr Biden "ever y success", according to a Kremlin statement on Tuesday, and expressed confidence that "Russia and the US, which bear special responsibility for global security and stability can, despite the differences, really contribute to solving many problems and challenges that the world is currently facing".
The Russian president noted that "the Russian-american cooperation based on the principles of equality and mutual respect would meet the interests of the people in both countries and the entire international community".
"For my part, I am ready for interaction and contact with you," Mr Putin was quoted by the Kremlin as saying.
The Electoral College presidential electors gave Mr Biden a solid majority of 306 electoral votes to Mr Trump's 232, the same margin that Mr Trump bragged was a landslide when he won the White House four years ago.
Heightened security was in place in some states as electors met to cast paper ballots, with masks, social distancing and other pandemic precautions the order of the day.
The results will be sent to Washington and tallied in a 6 January joint session of Congress over which vice president Mike Pence will preside.
For all of Mr Trump's unsup
ported claims of fraud, there was little suspense and no change as everyone of the electoral votes allocated to Mr Biden and the president in last month's popular vote went officially to each man.
On Election Day, the Democrat topped the incumbent Republican by more than 7 million in the popular vote nationwide. California's 55 electoral votes put Mr Biden over the top. Vermont, with three votes, was
the first state to report. Hawaii, with four votes, was the last.
"Once again in America, the rule of law, our Constitution, and the will of the people have prevailed. Our democracy – pushed, tested, threatened – proved to be resilient, true, and strong," Mr Biden said in an evening speech in which he stressed the size of his win and the record 81 million people who voted for him.
He renewed his campaign
promise to be a president for all Americans, whether they voted for him or not, and said the country has hard work ahead on the virus and economy.
But there was no concession from the White House, where Mr Trump has continued to make unsupported allegations of fraud.
The president had grown increasingly disappointed with the size of "Stop the Steal" rallies across the nation.