One of the smartest things the Obama-Biden administration did was freeze the bank accounts of Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs. While that move was widely derided at the time by Republicans and Russians (same diff), it was enormously effective. It was also one of the big reasons why Putin put resources into f–king with the 2016 American election, because he wanted his useful idiot Donald Trump to un-freeze the bank accounts. Of course, Putin had a longer laundry list of what he wanted from his very own compromised American president, and Trump did the most to make it happen, from weakening America’s historic NATO alliances to supporting far-right movements and authoritarian dictatorships around the world. Putin got what he paid for and then he moved on when Trump was no longer useful, or at least that’s what it felt like. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Putin did spend some resources to try to keep Trump around – a weakened, useless idiot as American president is better for Russia, after all. But Putin has finally acknowledged, six weeks late, that Joe Biden is president-elect. Mitch McConnell still hasn’t acknowledged it, for whatever that’s worth.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the US presidential election Tuesday, six weeks after the vote and a day after the Electoral College officially affirmed Biden’s win. While many world leaders congratulated President-elect Biden within days of the election, the Kremlin said at the time that it deemed it “correct” to wait for the official results before Putin congratulated the winner.
“Vladimir Putin wished the President-elect every success and expressed confidence that Russia and the United States, which bear special responsibility for global security and stability, despite their differences can truly contribute to solving many problems and challenges that the world is currently facing,” a Kremlin readout said on Tuesday. Putin noted that “Russian-American cooperation based on the principles of equality and mutual respect would meet the interests of people in both countries as well as the entire international community. For my part, I am ready for cooperation and contacts with you,” the Russian President said.
The outreach to the incoming administration comes amid news that may further strain US-Russian relations, following a CNN-Bellingcat investigation that identified Russian specialists who trailed Putin’s main political opponent, opposition leader Alexey Navalny. It also comes as US officials scramble to respond to a massive data breach attributed to Russian hackers.
It’s also a marked contrast to 2016, when the Kremlin congratulated US President Donald Trump within hours of the race being called, but Biden’s administration will have a very different attitude towards Russia.
I tend to believe that Putin still has a hand to play in the next few months, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if, when the dust settles, we learn of a dozen more f–ked up things between the Trump administration and Russia. I’m not trying to hype Putin as some all-powerful, all-knowing villain, but I genuinely feel like he’s worked it out so that even with the Biden administration, Putin still has some chips to play. Anyway, I hope Biden rips him a new one. I hope Biden restores our NATO alliances. I hope Biden restores all of the Obama-era checks on Putin’s power and reach.
Vladimir Putin beats Mitch McConnell to the punch in publicly recognizing President-elect Biden’s win. https://t.co/eFYhQuqg8T
— Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) December 15, 2020
Vladimir Putin, an adversary of the US who is said to despise Joe Biden, has congratulated him on his victory. Mitch McConnell, @GOP leader of the Senate and a colleague of Biden for 25 years, has not.
— Borzou Daragahi 🖊🗒 (@borzou) December 15, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
And in other news, Tiffany Trump has moved into the WH to serve as her father’s official food tester, which he’ll need now that Putin is done with him.
OMG….I got as far as “…moved into the WH” and started swearing LOL. And then I realized “sarcasm”! Thanks for the laugh.
Well done, Rapunzel. God, what does it say when Putin acknowledges the President-elect and you’re still banging on about election fraud, and demonstrating to the world that you’re a maths dunce? Le-hoooo-zer.
Well I guess it’s finally official. If Vlad congratulates Biden we can all rest easy now. Trump and his minions are such traitors to this country. I can’t wait (and I hope) they go to prison.
Holy sh^t. It will be interesting to see how quickly Mitch and the Republicans follow suit now. And how will the deplorables spin this? I don’t even want to know.
Esmom- the deplorables are convinced Biden is a fascist socialist communist Marxist. No matter that those are separate and different concepts
I seriously read (and not from a bot, either) a crazy Trumpster post that said Biden would shut off power grids and stop food shipments the day after the election. And lead our military into traps that would decimate it in less than two weeks. And release bioweapons on US citizens and kill 80-90% of the population. And then surrender to China in March and that China would occupy us by April. Because “that’s what happens every time communists take over”
The crazy stupid is frightening.
The dumpster trumpsters also said the virus would be gone on Nov 4th and now it’s the worst it’s ever been. They never have an answer as to why the virus didn’t go away the day after the election. They never do.
Their crystal balls are broken.
Meanwhile, Trump literally allowed Putin to put a price on the heads of US soldiers, and his supporters were…yeah, pretty much fine with that, apparently. Just a bunch of suckers and losers anyway, amirite?
MCConnell acknowledged this morning, making it clear he really is Moscow Mitch.
@Lightpurple, correct. As soon as Putin did, he followed suit. How many more signs do the minions need before they see the LIGHT.
Vlad must be sore that his hacking didn’t work this time. Lol. He always has such a pinched, sour puss face it’s hard to read his feelings from just his face (must be all that KGB training).
I think the US govt should be made to understand that Russia isn’t our friend. She never was. I think she’s still salty about the Cold War.
As a chess player I gotta say Putin has been playing good chess for the last 5 years. Certainly not expert level though. Obama was better. Obama had a pandemic plan and clearly Putin had nothing because Russia has been ravaged by COVID too. Rona flipped the board and Putin’s game never recovered. He still has moves though. We’ll see how Biden plays. Obama’s blueprints make me feel cautiously optimistic.
MCConnell finally acknowledged the electoral college and congratulated Biden this morning. He had to wait for his orders from Putin.
Putin disposes of tools he no longer needs. Nagini and Tom Riddle might want to curtail the international travel
I think Putin is done with Trump, but I’m guessing he’ll wait to burn all the assets in the family until we see how the criminal cases shake out. Looks like the current plan is to install Ivanka (FL) & Lara (NC) in Congress. I’m sure Don Jr. would love to get elected to some office in Montana, but unless he gets serious help I think he’s going to kill himself.
The Trumps have no power anymore and there are of no use to Putin – it will be interesting to see if the Russian mobsters start calling in their chips. Trump has soo much debt with them.
Putin is directing his cronies to hack into our systems to steal their final secrets before Biden comes in and perhaps cover up Trumps crimes. They hacked into the dept of treasury, dept of commerce and a fire eye this past weekend . He has successfully destabilized the country via Trump. His work here is done. It is sickening to watch how these traitors handed the US and it’s secrets on a platter. The US is compromised.