Russia floats idea of ‘reset’ with United States after Trump declares victory

Reuters

MOSCOW, Nov 6 – New opportunities to reset relations between Moscow and Washington have opened up, the influential head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday after Donald Trump declared victory in the U.S. presidential election.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the Soviet Union and the U.S. came close to nuclear war.

Both Russian and U.S. diplomats say relations between the world’s two largest nuclear powers have only been worse during the depths of the Cold War.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a senior figure in Russia’s political elite, said that Trump’s team had won the presidency and the Senate “despite a large-scale disinformation campaign directed against them”.

“Their convincing victory shows that ordinary Americans are tired of the unprecedented lies, incompetence, and malice of the Biden administration,” said Dmitriev, a former Goldman Sachs banker who has previously had contacts with the Trump team.

“This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States,” added Dmitriev, who has regularly met and offered advice to President Vladimir Putin.

Trump, a Republican, claimed victory in the 2024 presidential contest after Fox News projected that he had defeated Democrat Kamala Harris, which would cap a stunning political comeback four years after he left the White House.