President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the 2020 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon.
“He will pay a price,” Biden told ABC News in an interview that aired on Wednesday. Asked what the consequences would come, he said, “You’ll see shortly.”
His comments come after a U.S. intelligence report on Tuesday bolstered longstanding allegations that Putin was behind Moscow’s election interference, an accusation Russia called baseless.
At the same time, Biden noted that “there’s places where it’s in our mutual interest to work together” such as renewing the START nuclear agreement, adding that the two leaders have a known history.
“I know him relatively well,” Biden said, adding that “the most important thing dealing with foreign leaders in my experience ... is just know the other guy.”
Russia has never interfered in US elections, Peskov told reporters. "We disagree with the report’s conclusions concerning our country," the Russian presidential spokesman said. "Russia did not interfere in the previous elections, and did not meddle with the 2020 elections to which the report refers," Peskov stressed. "Russia was not involved in campaigns against any of the candidates," he added.
"We consider that this report is wrong," the Kremlin spokesman said. "It is absolutely unfounded and has no proof," he emphasized.
The Kremlin regrets that unfounded claims on Russia’s "meddling" in the US presidential elections, which are based on poor quality files, are used as a reason for possible new sanctions, Peskov told reporters.
"In general, we can only once again voice regret that such files - which are far from being of high quality - are used, most likely, as an excuse to put on the agenda the issue of new sanctions against our country," Peskov said.
According to him, "this line hurts the already ailing Russian-US relations." "And, of course, such a line is far from encouraging at least some efforts, the manifestation of at least some political will to normalize these relations," Peskov stated.
