Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his congratulations to Donald Trump on his victory in the U.S. election on Thursday and declared that Moscow was ready to engage in dialogue with him.
At the Valdai discussion club in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin praised Trump’s “real man” response to the attempted assassination he faced in July while speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Putin stated that Trump’s campaign comments regarding Ukraine and mending ties with Russia merit serious consideration.
“What was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to bring about the end of the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion this deserves attention at least,” said the Russian president.
Trump campaigned on a promise to end the largest land war in Europe since WWII, but he has offered few specifics on how he plans to do it, other than saying he could bring peace to Ukraine within 24 hours if elected.
Russia and Trump have repeatedly dismissed as nonsense some claims in Western media that Trump was a Russian agent of influence.
In 2019, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller conducted an investigation into allegations of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. However, he concluded that there was no evidence of a conspiracy in his report.
