WASHINGTON, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – US President-elect
Donald Trump on Friday praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for not quickly hitting back at Washington for the punitive measures imposed over alleged interference in the November election.
“Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very
smart!” Trump tweeted.
Earlier, the Russian leader ruled out any immediate tit-for-tat
expulsions of American officials in the row over what Washington says were “efforts to harm US interests” in connection with the November 8 election won by the Republican.
Putin’s own foreign ministry had recommended that he eject 35
American officials to counterbalance US President Barack Obama’s move on Thursday to expel 35 Russian intelligence operatives and shut down two Russian compounds in the US.
Trump, who succeeds Obama on January 20, has repeatedly praised Putin
and made a number of cabinet picks of people with ties to Russia.
The FBI and CIA have concluded that Russian intelligence agencies
oversaw the hacking and leaking of emails from Democratic Party organizations under Kremlin orders this year in order to benefit Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton.
In the past, the president-elect has ridiculed US intelligence about
Russia’s cyber-meddling, saying it was not clear who conducted the attacks.
He has long treated such accusations as a thinly veiled effort by a
Democratic president to delegitimize a Republican victory.
On Wednesday, he issued a call for the country to “move on to bigger
and better things,” but said he would meet with US intelligence leaders nextweek to be “updated on the facts of this situation.”