World’s congratulations on hold
Putin, other leaders say calls to Biden appear premature
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t congratulate Joe Biden until legal challenges to the U.S. election are resolved and the result is official, the Kremlin announced Monday.
Putin is one of a handful of world leaders who have not commented on Biden’s claimed victory. But President Donald Trump’s team has promised legal action in the coming days and refused to concede Trump’s loss, while alleging large-scale voter fraud.
When Trump won in 2016, Putin was prompt in offering congratulations — but Trump’s challenger in that election, Hillary Clinton, conceded the day after the vote.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that this year is different.
“Obviously, you can see that certain legal procedures are coming there, which were announced by the incumbent president — therefore this situation is different, so we consider it correct to wait for the official announcement,” he said.
The leaders of China, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey also are waiting to offer congratulations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin offered a similar explanation of why President Xi Jinping has stayed silent.
“We understand the presidential election result will be determined following U.S. laws and procedures,” he said.
A senior Turkish official said Ankara also was waiting for the various legal challenges to be settled.
“Turkey will congratulate the winner as soon as the results of the election will become official as part of the respect it has for the U.S. people and democracy,” said Omer Celik, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party. He said Turkey knows that Trump and Biden and is prepared to work with “whichever wing” is the winner.
Peskov suggested that when the time comes, a congratulatory message from Putin would come with all the expected protocol.
“I remind you that Vladimir Putin said more than once that he will respect any choice of American people, and will be ready to work with any chosen president of the United States,” he said.
For now, Putin’s holding back allows a delay in addressing the fraught question of how to improve relations. Although Russian politicians widely lauded Trump’s election in 2016, expecting him to make good on his promises of improving ties, his administration disappointed Moscow by enacting sanctions, expelling scores of Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal in the U.K., and authorizing lethal weapons sales to Ukraine.
But Russia is characteristically wary of Democratic U.S. administrations because they tend to be more forward about criticizing Russia on human rights and democracy issues.
Biden, in a 2011 trip to Russia as vice president, epitomized that approach in a speech at Moscow Statue University: “Don’t compromise on the basic elements of democracy. You need not make that Faustian bargain,” he told students.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Latin America’s two largest countries, Brazil and Mexico, have both been seen as friendly to Trump.
President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, sometimes dubbed “the Trump of the Tropics” for his populist, off-the-cuff style, has kept silent on the election results so far. That is also the case with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradort.
Trump and the two are united by some surface similarities: They dislike wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic, and all three can loosely be described as populist and nationalist. But the motives of the two Latin leaders may differ.
Bolsonaro had expressed hope for Trump’s reelection, and his son, a congressman, wore hats with the logo “Trump 2020.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro posted images on social media questioning how Biden’s votes were rising so quickly in later counts, while Trump’s weren’t. He also questioned TV networks’ decision to cut away from Trump’s speech Wednesday alleging vote fraud, calling it an attack on freedom of speech.
Officials in the office of the presidency said President Bolsonaro has been adopting a more pragmatic tone, following the guidance of his advisers.
Lopez Obrador’s cordial relationship with Trump, meanwhile, was often seen as unusual for a left-leaning politician, but it had a workmanlike basis.
In part, that is political realism: In 2019, Trump threatened to apply crippling tariffs on Mexican products unless Lopez Obrador cracked down on Central American migrants crossing Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Mexico complied, rounding up migrants and busing them back to their home countries.
But there were also moments of seeming real friendship. On Saturday, Lopez Obrador was one of the few world leaders still willing to heap praise on Trump.
“President Trump has been very respectful of us, and we have reached very good agreements, and we thank him because he has not interfered and has respected us,” Lopez Obrador said.