Dmitry Peskov, one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s spokesmen, perhaps protested too much while denying on Friday that the Kremlin has ever meddled in U.S. internal affairs and said the country is “not going to do it in the future.” Peskov went on to state that the United States’ “emotional obsession” with Russia “will end soon”:
Peskov said Russia stands ready to move as far forward on its diplomatic agenda with the United States as Washington is willing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “has more than once announced his readiness for such meetings [with U.S. President Trump], his readiness to develop our relations as profoundly as our partners in Washington are ready to,” according to Peskov.
Peskov’s comments come two days after President Trump met with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak and discussed building the relationship between the two countries as well as ending the conflict in Syria.
The deflection by Russia is oddly timed, for top intelligence officials said (again) on Thursday that Russia conducted hacking during the 2016 election. It’s a conclusion that President Trump still denies. On Friday morning, CNN dissected Peskov’s words as embodying both deflection and denial.
Earlier this week, Peskov blamed the U.S. for renewed Cold War-era tensions in an interview with CBS. Peskov specifically pointed to the U.S. support of NATO allies in the Baltics within his comments.
(via ABC News)