Putin still mum on Biden victory

MOSCOW — Unlike his Western European counterparts, who quickly posted congratulations, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not issued a statement on Presidentelect Joe Biden’s election victory.

Four years earlier, the Kremlin rushed out a message for President Trump within hours of the U. S. television networks calling the race on election night.

“Putin is a good soldier and does not wag his tail before his enemies,” said a prominent proKremlin analyst, Sergei Markov.

The early signs indicate that Putin is preparing for a deeply adversarial relationship with America’s next president. While Trump never delivered on Russian hopes of rapprochement between Washington and Moscow, his Americafirst foreign policy dovetailed with the Kremlin’s desire to weaken the Western alliance and to expand Russian influence around the world.

Biden, by contrast, is a presidentelect whom Putin already has many reasons to dread. Biden sees Russia as one of America’s biggest security threats, promises to rebuild frayed ties with European allies and, as vice president, worked actively to support proWestern politicians in Ukraine, a country at war with Russia.

Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Monday that the Kremlin was holding off on a congratulatory message out of respect for the court challenges launched by Trump. “We believe it would be proper to wait for an official announcement” of the election results, Peskov said.