After Mueller probe rules out Russia link with 2016 US polls, Russian officials aren’t too glad

Moscow, March 26: Days after report of Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's alleged link with the US presidential election of 2016 came out nullifying any such collusion, Russian officials reacted to the development. Although they welcomed the conclusion, they were also doubtful that the relations between Russia and the West would improve because of it.

The Mueller investigation went on for quite a while and faced the odds. Even US President Donald Trump, who and whose family were not above suspicion of colluding with the Russians, repeatedly attacked the probe as a "witch hunt". The final findings would definitely bring relief to the president.

However, the Russians are saying that they knew what the result would be. "The long-awaited Mueller report has proved what we in Russia knew long ago: there was no conspiracy between Trump or any member of his team and the Kremlin," Konstantin Kosachev, the chair of Russia's Federation Council's committee on foreign affairs, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Kosachev and other senior Russian officials said they expected the Americans to increase pressure on Moscow and impose new sanctions.

Kosachev added that Russia had nothing to celebrate since the accusations against it remains. "Yes, there was no collusion, but sanctions against Russia still need to be strengthened," he expected the US officials to argue on those lines.

Alexei Pushkov, another Russian senator, tweeted on Sunday saying: "Mueller found no facts of collusion between Trump and Moscow. But Democrats will still scream that there was collusion."

"All of these myths about the infamous Russian meddling was simply invented as a pretext to continue pressure against our country."

Officially, though, there was no comment from the Kremlin on Monday. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said they were yet to see the report and thus was not able to comment on it in details.

Peskov though added that Russia never tried to meddle in the US elections and in response to the question whether Moscow was still ready to improve its relations with the US, he said Russia did not take the initiative to break the relation.

Peskov also cited an old Chinese saying that it is difficult to find a black cat in a black room particularly if it is not there, adding that the West never understood it, the CNN reported.