MOSCOW: Russia knows nothing about former US President Donald Trump's "peace plan" regarding Ukraine, but Moscow does pay ve...
MOSCOW: Russia knows nothing about former US President Donald Trump's "peace plan" regarding Ukraine, but Moscow does pay very close attention to all his public statements, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Friday.
"No, we know nothing about it," Ryabkov said on air of Russia’s Channel One television broadcaster in response to a question about Trump’s "peace plan" on Ukraine.
"I think it would be fair to say that any signals that we receive in the public space from the ex-president of the United States, we follow very closely," Ryabkov added.
According to the high-ranking diplomat, Russia is constantly "monitoring contacts established by foreign leaders while they are in the United States."
"We are not overstating the significance of any of them. We do realize the scope of the so-called deep state in Washington regarding its all-encompassing and self-indulgent authority," Ryabkov continued.
"There, any passionate, self-confident and self-assured politician can be put in line with the mainstream quite quickly. When I say this, I am not talking about Trump," the Russian diplomat said, adding that Russia "has no preferences whatsoever" about who wins the US election.
"We cannot have them, we distance ourselves from all of this and take a stance as an outside observer," he continued. "But facts are facts - the [established US] system is a monster."
"It has been proved on numerous occasions and this is why I would rather abstain from making statements that Candidate X would automatically side with the previous course of the [country’s] policies, while Candidate Y would try to change them," Ryabkov said.
The diplomat added that only after the US presidential election results are released on the morning of November 6 would it make sense to "come up with more or less substantiated statements regarding what is possible and what is not."
The United States has entered into a heated discussion about Biden’s physical ability to remain president after Atlanta hosted the first-ever US televised election debate between a sitting and a former president on June 27.
CNN said some Democrats "hit the panic button" following Biden’s very bad performance in the debate. NBC TV echoed that "Democrats just committed collective suicide." According to a CNN express-poll, two thirds of those who watched the debate said Trump won.
The US presidential election will take place on November 5. Trump has already secured enough delegates’ votes to be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. Biden, who runs for re-election, has secured enough votes among Democrats. Their candidacies are to be approved at party congresses later in summer.
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