On Monday, the Kremlin expressed caution regarding the potential presidential candidacy of Kamala Harris, stating that the vice-president had contributed nothing to relations with Moscow beyond some hostile rhetoric. US President Biden withdrew his re-election bid on Sunday amid increasing pressure from fellow Democrats and endorsed Vice-President Harris as the party's candidate to challenge Republican Donald Trump in the November election.
When asked if Russia was surprised by Biden's decision, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that recent events in the United States had taught Moscow not to be surprised by anything, emphasizing that Russia had different priorities. Peskov told reporters during a conference call, 'In recent years, what has been happening in the United States has taught us not to be surprised by anything. We were not very surprised.'
For Russia, Peskov highlighted that the priority was achieving the goals of President Vladimir Putin's special military operation in Ukraine, which began with the attack on Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin could not assess the implications of a Harris candidacy for relations because Moscow had not observed any contributions from Harris to those relations, aside from some unfriendly rhetoric, according to Peskov.
'At the moment, we cannot assess the potential candidacy of Ms Harris from the point of view of our bilateral relations because so far her contribution to our bilateral relations has not been noticed,' Peskov said. 'There were statements that were replete with rhetoric quite unfriendly towards our country, but her actions in relations to bilateral relations come under neither a plus nor a minus sign.'
Harris has consistently supported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and accused Russia of conducting a 'barbaric and inhumane' war. When asked if Putin and Harris had ever met or had any contacts, Peskov admitted, 'To be honest, I can't remember a single contact between President Putin and Ms Harris.'
Before Biden's withdrawal from the race, Putin had expressed that he preferred Biden over Donald Trump as the future US president for Russia, despite Biden's characterization of the Kremlin chief as a 'crazy SOB,' though some of his remarks have been ambiguous. Russian state television led news bulletins with the news of Biden leaving the election race and his support for Harris, though it was unclear if Harris would secure the Democratic nomination.
In Moscow, some residents expressed that US politics had never benefited Russians, apart from the supply of US chicken legs during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Andrei Popkov, a 52-year-old programmer, told Reuters in the shadow of the Bolshoi Theatre, 'What does it matter to us whether it is Harris, Trump, Biden or (George) Bush? Did we ever have anything good other than chicken legs?' The so-called 'nozhki Busha' or 'Bush legs' were supplied to Russia after a deal between Mikhail Gorbachev and George HW Bush.
However, others held cautious hopes that a change in leadership in the United States could improve relations and believed it was time for Biden to step down. Alla Gorevanova, a 57-year-old, said, 'It is possible to stop the supply of weapons to Ukraine and, perhaps, the war will stop then. This is my hope.' 'I think it's time for this elderly man (Biden) to stop being a leader,' Gorevanova added, suggesting that Biden seemed unable to properly assess either the domestic or global political situation.
