WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA – NOVEMBER 06: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump points to supporters with former first lady Melania Trump during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Americans cast their ballots today in the presidential race between Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as multiple state elections that will determine the balance of power in Congress. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by CHIP SOMODEVILLA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
The Kremlin said Wednesday it would judge Donald Trump, who claimed victory in the US presidential election, on his actions and that President Vladimir Putin had no plans to congratulate him.
“We will draw conclusions based on concrete steps and concrete words,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
If elected, Trump has claimed that he would end the fighting in Ukraine within 24 hours.
The US is “capable of helping bring about the end of this conflict” in Ukraine, but is also “the country that is inflaming the conflict”, Peskov said.
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Peskov said that Trump had made some “quite harsh statements” during his campaign, but that he also spoke of “his aspirations for peace on the international arena, about his aspirations to end politics based on continuing old wars.”
He added that: “But after victory, preparing to enter the Oval Office, sometimes statements take on a different tone.”
The Kremlin also said it would be “practically impossible” for the next administration to make Russia-US relations worse, since they are “at their lowest point in history”.
He rejected accusations that Russia had interfered in the US elections.
Peskov said he was “not aware” of Putin’s plans to congratulate Trump, since the US is an “unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state”, referring to the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin was one of the last leaders to congratulate Joe Biden on his 2020 election victory, sending his congratulatory message six weeks after the vote.