Russia refrains from wishing Joe Biden, says will wait until official announcement

Kremlin has said that it will not rush into wishing the United States President-elect Joe Biden because of the pending legal issues and will wait until the official announcement. Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia is waiting for the formal announcement to happen before the President could extend his wishes to his new US counterpart. 

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When reporters highlighted Putin wishing the incumbent Donald Trump within hours of 2016 election results, Peskov said the situation was different at that time as nobody had filed lawsuits challenging the outcome. Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden has already received congratulatory messages from leaders all over the world, including from the United Kingdom, France, India, and Israel.

However, Russia has decided to wait until an official announcement from Washington is made in this regard. Several US intelligence reports had indicated that Russia wants Donald Trump to win the election and could even try to meddle in order to make sure he wins. Russia allegedly interfered in the 2016 US election as well that saw Donald Trump become the president of the US. 

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During the election campaign, Joe Biden had warned against any meddling in the election, particularly directing his threat towards Kremlin. Relations between Russia and the United States had soured in 2014 when Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea region. The United States, which was being led by Barack Obama and his deputy Joe Biden at the time, slapped a package of sanctions on Russia. 

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Legal battles mounted by Trump

Joe Biden has been projected winner of the 2020 US presidential election after securing a massive lead in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, which offers 20 electoral votes to the leading candidate. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Convention (RNC) have filed lawsuits in several states, including Pennsylvania, demanding a recount and challenging the counting of late-arriving ballots. Donald Trump has accused poll officials of election fraud as they continued counting after 8 p.m on the final voting day. 

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