Putin withholds congratulatory call to Trump, will wait to see what he does once back in office come January

On Wednesday morning in Moscow, spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the Kremlin’s first remarks on Donald Trump’s apparent election in the United States to a second term, saying that he was unaware of any plans by Vladimir Putin to telephone Trump to congratulate him. “Let’s not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country, which is both directly and indirectly involved in the war against our state,” Peskov told reporters, adding that “the current U.S. president” (avoiding using Joe Biden’s name) still has nearly a month and a half in office.

Asked about Trump’s campaign promise to negotiate an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, Peskov suggested that Moscow is waiting to see if Trump acts on his words. “Once [in the Oval Office], statements can sometimes take on a different tone. That’s why we say we are carefully analyzing everything, monitoring everything, and we will draw conclusions from specific words and concrete actions,” explained the Kremlin’s spokesman.

At the same time, Peskov dismissed the possibility of ending the conflict in Ukraine “overnight,” but he stressed that America’s role in “fueling” the war means Washington is “capable of changing the trajectory of this foreign policy.” “Whether this will happen and in what way, we’ll see after January,” said Putin’s press secretary.

In 2016, Vladimir Putin was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Donald Trump for winning the U.S. presidential election.