UPDATE 3: Putin says hopes Trump victory to pull relations out of crisis

(Adds comments in two last paragraphs)

MOSCOW/VIENNA, Nov 9 (PRIME) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Donald Trump with a victory in the U.S. presidential elections in a telegram and expressed hope that they will now pull the bilateral relations out of the crisis together, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, Putin “expressed hope that joint efforts will drive the Russian–American relations out of the state of a crisis, and also solve topical issues of the international agenda and earch for effective answers to challenges to the global security.”

Russia and the U.S. must form a constructive dialogue based on equal rights, mutual respect and real consideration of each other’s positions.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin hopes that the positions of Moscow and Washington on the Syrian conflict will come closer after Trump takes the post. Peskov declined to comment on any hopes of anti-Russian sanctions repeal.

“This is not our problem, whether the sanctions are lifted, or not. This is the problem of those countries that have introduced them. The Russian side, as you know, does not raise these topics.”

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said he was wary of scaring off hope that Russia and the U.S. will restore their relations under the Trump presidency. “Russia is ready in its turn to get ahead really far, we are open and would like to see the same from our American partners.”

Ulyukayev said that the Trump victory was a sort of a revolt of the working class against elites and a sign that politicians must pay more attention to business problems.

“This is a very important sign, I think. Everybody must think about it and the political class must redeem the debt to the producing class: those who work, create values,” Ulyukayev said.

He also said that although the ruble reacted to the Trump election with a fall, its general trend was upwards.

“We assume that there soon will some kind of a stability with slightly higher chances for strengthening than weakening of the local currency, but we are talking about months and years,” he said.

“Of course, the current volatility is quite high because the market responds to political news, speculations and rumors. This is why the current volatility is omnipresent, but the basic trend favors strengthening more (than weakening).”

Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov said that the oil market volatility does not depend on the U.S. elections. “Volatility will continue, it will always be there.”

Deputy Central Bank Chairwoman Ksenia Yudayeva ruled out any serious influence of the U.S. elections results on the Russian market. “Our market reacts significantly less than many other markets, of both developed and emerging countries. We saw a similar situation with Brexit this is why I think that there will be no serious influence on our markets.”

Andrei Kostin, CEO of the country’s second largest bank VTB Bank, told PRIME that the victory of Trump opens new possibilities for reloading of the Russia–U.S. relations and even for easing or lifting of the Western anti-Russian sanctions.

“I think that such a development of events is possible. Unlike Hillary Clinton, who deliberately built her election campaign on rude anti-Russian rhetoric, Donald Trump is not associated with sharp statements about Russia, so he may very well try to ‘reload’ our relations,” he said.

End