Russian opposition leader Navalny congratulates Biden; Putin mum

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny congratulates US President-elect Joe Biden on his victory before there was any reaction from the Kremlin to the US election results.

Navalny in a tweet congratulates Biden, running mate Kamala Harris and Americans for “defining the new leadership in a free and fair election.”

“This is a privilege which is not available to all countries,” says Navalny, who is recovering in Germany from a suspected poisoning earlier this year.

World leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson congratulated Biden, but by mid-afternoon Sunday there was no statement yet from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has been accused of interfering in the 2016 US election to help get Trump elected, in the hopes he would take a softer line with Moscow.

Biden is expected to take a tougher stand and during the campaign slammed Trump for having “embraced so many autocrats around the world, starting with Vladimir Putin.”

Navalny, Russia’s leading opposition figure, collapsed on a plane in late August and was taken to hospital in Siberia for two days before being flown out to Berlin, where tests found he had been poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent. Navalny has claimed Putin was personally responsible for the poisoning, while the Kremlin has rejected all allegations it could have been involved.

— AFP