Russia to respect US ‘far more’ under Trump, says president-elect
US President-elect Donald Trump says under his administration Russia would respect Washington “far more” than the presidency of Barack Obama.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, the future president also called “stupid people or fools,” anyone who opposes good relations with Moscow.
“Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad,” he said.
Trump has rejected a report by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, which gave the celebrity billionaire control over the White House for at least four years.
“We have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now,” he claimed.
The real estate tycoon added that that the two world powers “will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!”
In the run-up to the 2016 vote, WikiLeaks kept releasing batches of emails from the campaign of Trump’s opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, as well as the Democratic National Committee.
Democrats pointed the finger at Russia, an allegation later confirmed by the FBI and the CIA, and dismissed by Moscow ever since.
In a joint analysis issued on Thursday, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided technical details about the tools and cyber infrastructure they said Russian civilian and military intelligence services used for the hack attack, code named Grizzly Steppe.
The document said the cyberattack was carried out to “compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the US election, as well as a range of US government, political, and private sector entities.”
