Russia leader Putin congratulates Trump on victory
November 9, 2016 - 2:05 am
![](https://develop.reviewjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_7163667-1afc52cfd2c449b3954b2df71bbe82df_7360633.jpg)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens (Alexei Nikolsky/AP)
WASHINGTON — Russian President Vladimir Putin is giving a thumbs-up to president-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
In a brief statement Wednesday, the Kremlin said Putin has sent Trump a telegram to congratulate him on winning. Putin expressed “his hope to work together for removing Russian-American relations from their crisis state.”
Putin also says he has confidence that building a constructive dialogue between Moscow and Washington — one based on principles of equality, mutual respect and a real accounting each other’s positions — is in the interest of both nations and the world.
Trump has drawn criticism for repeatedly praising Putin’s leadership and advocating a closer working relationship with Russia despite its record of human rights abuses and recent military incursions in Ukraine and Syria.