Kremlin Says ‘Let’s See’ If Trump Victory Will Help End Ukraine War

 Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
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Kremlin Says ‘Let’s See’ If Trump Victory Will Help End Ukraine War

 Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)

The Kremlin reacted cautiously on Wednesday after Donald Trump declared victory in the US presidential election, saying the US was still a hostile state and that time would tell if Trump rhetoric on ending the Ukraine war translated into reality.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the Soviet Union and the US came close to nuclear war.

Trump, a Republican, claimed victory in the 2024 presidential contest defeating Democrat Kamala Harris, capping a stunning political comeback four years after he left the White House.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump had made some important statements about wanting to end the Ukraine war during his campaign, but only time would tell if they will lead to action.

"Let us not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country, which is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state" (in Ukraine)," Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said he was not aware of any plans by President Vladimir Putin to congratulate Trump on his victory and that relations with Washington were at an historic low.

"We have repeatedly said that the US is able to contribute to the end of this conflict. This cannot be done overnight, but... the US is capable of changing the trajectory of its foreign policy. Will this happen, and if so, how ... we will see after (the US president's inauguration in) January."

Russian and US diplomats say relations between the world's two largest nuclear powers have only been worse during the depths of the Cold War. Russian officials from Putin down said ahead of the election that it made no difference to Moscow who won the White House, even as Kremlin-guided state media coverage showed a preference for Trump.

Kirill Dmitriev, the influential head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, said a Trump victory could be a chance to repair ties.

"This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States," added Dmitriev, a former Goldman Sachs banker who has previously had contacts with the Trump team.

In 2009, then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a "reset" with Moscow, but due to an apparent translation error presented Moscow with a symbolic button labelled "overload" in Russian instead of "reset".

Despite the "reset", relations between Putin and then US President Barack Obama soured.

WAR IN UKRAINE

Trump, 78, has promised to swiftly end the war in Ukraine if elected, though he has not explained exactly how he would do that.

Putin has said he is ready to talk about a possible end to the war, but that Russia's territorial gains and claims must be accepted, something that the Ukrainian leadership rejected as an unacceptable capitulation.

Russian forces are advancing at the fastest pace in at least a year in Ukraine and control about one fifth of the country.

That includes Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, about 80% of the Donbas - a coal-and-steel zone - and more than 70% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday that Trump's win would probably be bad news for Ukraine, which relies on Washington as its top military backer.

"Trump has one useful quality for us: as a businessman to the core, he mortally dislikes spending money on various hangers–on," Medvedev, now a senior security official, posted on his Telegram account.

"The question is how much Trump will be forced to give to the war. He's stubborn, but the system is stronger," he said.



Iran, Europeans Test Diplomacy with Trump Term Looming

Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
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Iran, Europeans Test Diplomacy with Trump Term Looming

Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)
Iranian flag flies in front of the UN office building, housing IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria, May 24, 2021. (Reuters)

European and Iranian officials made little progress in meetings on Friday on whether they could engage in serious talks, including over Iran's disputed nuclear program, before Donald Trump returns to the White House in January, diplomats said.

The meetings in Geneva, the first since this month's US election, come after Tehran was angered by a European-backed resolution last week that criticized Iran for poor cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.

"Another round of candid discussions with PDS (political directors) of France, Germany and United Kingdom," Iran's former ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said on X. "It was agreed to continue diplomatic dialogue in near future."

A European official said there had been nothing of note in the meeting, but that Tehran had shown an eagerness to explore how diplomacy could work in the next few weeks.

Trump, who after pulling the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers pursued a "maximum pressure" policy that sought to wreck Iran's economy, is staffing his new administration with noted hawks on Iran.

Iran's deputy foreign minister and senior nuclear negotiator Majid Takhtravanchi met the EU's coordinator Enrique Mora on Thursday evening before holding various talks on Friday with the European diplomats, known as the E3.

While Trump's return to power leaves many questions open, four European diplomats said the E3 countries - the European parties to the 2015 accord - felt it was vital to engage now because time was running out.

The level of distrust between both sides was highlighted when the E3 on Nov. 21 pushed ahead with a resolution by the IAEA board of governors which criticized Iran.

They dismissed as insufficient and insincere a last-minute Iranian move to cap its stock of uranium that is close to weapons grade.

Tehran reacted to the resolution by informing the IAEA that it plans to install more uranium-enriching centrifuges at its enrichment plants.

In rare public comments, the head of France's foreign intelligence service Nicolas Lerner said on Friday there was a real the risk of Iranian nuclear proliferation in the coming months.

"Our services are working side by side to face what is undoubtedly one of the most, if not the most, critical threat of the coming months ... possible atomic proliferation in Iran," Lerner said, speaking in Paris alongside his British counterpart, adding the two agencies were defining their strategy.

A European official had earlier said the primary aim in Geneva was to try to agree a calendar timeline and framework to embark on good faith talks so that there was a clear commitment from Iranians to begin negotiating something concrete before Trump arrives.

It was unclear immediately if there had been any such progress.

"If we finalize a roadmap with France, Britain and Germany on how to resolve the nuclear dispute, then the ball will be in the US court to revive or kill the 2015 nuclear deal," the senior Iranian official said.

The E3 have adopted a tougher stance on Iran in recent months, notably since Tehran ramped up its military support to Russia. However, they have always insisted that they wanted to maintain a policy of pressure and dialogue.

Iranian officials say their primary objective will be finding ways to secure lifting of sanctions.

WAR FEARS

The 2015 deal lifted international sanctions against Iran in return for Tehran accepting some curbs to its nuclear program. Since Trump left the deal, Iran has accelerated its nuclear program while limiting the IAEA's ability to monitor it.

"There isn't going to be an agreement until Trump takes office or any serious talks about the contours of a deal," said Kelsey Davenport, director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association advocacy group.

The talks, which also discussed the Middle East situation and Iran's military cooperation with Russia, took place amid fears that an all-out war could break out between Iran and arch-rival Israel despite a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Iran's Hezbollah allies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he wanted to turn Israel's focus to Iran.

The European powers hope Iran will decide to begin negotiating new restrictions on its nuclear activities with a view to having a deal by the summer.

That would give enough time to implement new limits on Iran's program and lift sanctions before the accord ends in October 2025. It is not clear whether Trump would back negotiations.