Russian Envoy Welcomes Trump’s ‘Promising’ Comments
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia’s Ambassador to Iran Levan Jagarian hailed what he called promising remarks by US President-elect Donald Trump about his plans to relieve problems in Washington-Moscow relations, expressing the hope that the Republican figure would honor his election campaign pledges.
In an interview with the Tasnim News Agency at Iran’s 22nd Press Exhibition in Tehran, Jagarian said Trump has made promising comments during his election campaign about resolving the problems in ties with Russia caused by the Obama administration.
“We welcome his views. Russia expects a lot from Trump. We hope that Trump would remain committed to the pledges made in his election campaign,” the Russian ambassador said.
He also criticized Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, loser of the US presidential election, for accusing Russia of interfering in America’s internal affairs and of supporting Trump.
That is not true, Jagarian underlined, noting that Russia has had no contact with Trump and that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump do not even know each other.
Within hours of Trump's victory speech early Wednesday, Putin congratulated the US president-elect and flagged Moscow's willingness to restore ties fully with its old Cold War foe, currently at loggerheads over the crisis in Syria.
Russia featured heavily in a heated campaign, with Trump praising Putin as a firm leader as US officials accused Moscow of meddling by leaking hacked Democratic campaign emails to undermine Hillary Clinton's candidacy.
"(Trump) spoke about resuming and restoring relations with Russia. We understand the way to that will be difficult, taking into account the current state of degradation of relations between the US and Russia," Putin told Russian state television on Wednesday.
"As I have repeatedly said, that is not our fault that Russia-US relations are in that state. Russia is ready and wants to restore the fully fledged relations with the US. I repeat we understand this will be difficult, but we are ready to play our part in it."
