Ties with US going ‘bad to worse’

With less than a month before Joe Biden moves into the White House, Moscow yesterday accused the incoming US administration of "Russophobia" after the president-elect promised to punish Russia for a major cyber attack. 

Biden is expected to take a tougher stance against Russia than Donald Trump, whose ascent to the US presidency in 2016 was plagued by accusations of Russian interference to boost his campaign.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the last leaders to congratulate Biden on his election victory, sending his congratulatory message six weeks after the November 3 vote and saying he was ready for "collaboration."

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said the Kremlin was expecting "nothing positive" in ties with Washington.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov struck a similar note, speaking about Moscow's expectations from the future US administration.

"We are definitely not expecting anything good," Ryabkov said in an interview with Interfax news agency.

"And it would be strange to expect good things from people, many of whom made their careers on Russophobia and throwing mud at my country," he added.

Washington has recently accused Russia of a major cyber attack on government agencies -- a claim Moscow has denied. Biden on Tuesday said the attack cannot go "unanswered", promising to retaliate once he steps into office on January 20. The US president-elect also accused Trump of downplaying the gravity of the attack.

Ryabkov said Moscow should move to a "total containment" approach in relations with the United States and retain "selective dialogue" on subjects that are of interest to Russia.

Both Peskov and Ryabkov said that Russia would not initiate any contacts with Biden's transition staff.

Referring to fresh US sanctions imposed this week on 45 Russian organisations over their military connections, Ryabkov said the outgoing administration was trying to "loudly slam the door".

"We are going from bad to worse," Ryabkov said.