Russian politicians cast US midterms as a blow to Biden, Kremlin unmoved

Russian politicians on Wednesday savoured preliminary US midterm election results which they cast as a humiliating and overdue blow to Democratic President Joe Biden, but the Kremlin said it expected no improvement in battered US-Russia ties.

The elections are being closely watched in Russia, which wants Washington to halt its rolling programme of generous military aid to Ukraine. Some pro-Kremlin Russians hope Republican success could mean Biden faces a tougher and longer slog to get military aid packages approved in future.

Pro-Kremlin hawks also hope the election will deepen domestic US political divisions, thus weakening the foundations of a country they see as their main geopolitical foe whose dominance they believe is drawing to a close.

Initial election results showed Republicans made modest gains but control of Congress and the future of Biden's agenda remained unclear on Wednesday morning.

"The first US election results... are confirmation that Grandfather Biden's familiar world is flying away," former president Dmitry Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging service.

Medvedev, now deputy head of the Security Council, is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the lower house of parliament, revelled in what he said was the Democrats' loss of their majority in the House of Representatives.

"President Biden's supporters are suffering a defeat in the US elections. Nancy Pelosi's trips to Taiwan and Armenia ended in the loss of the speaker's chair," said Volodin.

Russia, which in February proclaimed a "no limits" partnership with China, condemned Pelosi's August visit to Taiwan and was unhappy about her visit the following month to Armenia, traditionally a close Russian ally.

The Kremlin made clear it saw no great upside to the US midterms whatever the outcome however. It dismissed allegations, which appeared in some US newspapers, that Russia had tried to meddle in the US vote.

"These elections are important, but it's not necessary to exaggerate their importance in the short and medium-term for our relations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying.

"These elections cannot change anything essential. Relations are, and will remain, bad," said Peskov.