Russia not expecting ‘anything good’ from Biden administration, says official

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday Moscow was not expecting “anything good” from US President-elect Joe Biden, accusing members of his future administration of “Russophobia”.

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

The interview was released days after the US accused Russia of a major cyber attack on government agencies.

Biden on Tuesday said the attack cannot go “unanswered”, promising to retaliate once he takes office on January 20.

Ryabkov said Moscow should move to a “total containment” approach in relations with the United States, retaining “selective dialogue” on subjects that are of interest to Russia.

The deputy foreign minister said that Russia would not initiate any contacts with Biden’s transition staff, and would also not make any “unilateral concessions”.

He added that if the US continued approaching Russia as a “strategic rival” then Moscow would “treat them in a similar way”.

Referring to fresh US sanctions imposed earlier 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. This was very typical for the past four years and so far there is no feeling that this trend has outlived its usefulness,” Ryabkov said.