The key facts

  • On November 3, the United States held midterm elections: the entire House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate were up for election.
  • According to Decision Desk HQ, the Democrats and the independent senators supporting them secured at least 51 of the 100 seats in the Senate; DDHQ also reported Democratic control of the House of Representatives.
  • Sergey Ryabkov said that Russia's position on the Ukrainian settlement does not depend on the election results, but acknowledged the Democrats' 'sharply negative' approaches toward Moscow.

Election results and Moscow's statements

On November 3, the United States held midterm congressional elections that will determine the balance of power in the federal government for the next two years: Americans elected the entire House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate. This was reported by Gazeta.Ru. According to the analytics service Decision Desk HQ, the Democratic Party and independent senators who support it have secured at least 51 of the 100 seats in the Senate, which allows them to gain control of the upper chamber — as reported by Life.ru. At the same time, the analytics portal DDHQ, according to Gazeta.Ru, said that the Democrats will also gain control of the lower chamber — the House of Representatives.

The Russian Foreign Ministry's position

Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov, in a comment to RIA Novosti, called for waiting for the final results of the vote and said that Russia's foreign policy course does not depend on the 'fluctuations of the political barometer in other countries.' According to him, the principled and consistent line on Ukraine is 'not opportunistic,' and even a possible deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington will not become grounds for revising Russia's approaches to settling the conflict. At the same time, Ryabkov acknowledged that the approaches of the Democratic Party leadership to relations with Russia are 'sharply negative,' adding that 'there is nothing new in this.' Russian diplomacy, he noted, will continue to act in accordance with the directives of President Vladimir Putin.

What is known and what remains unclear

The final election results had not yet been tallied at the time of publication, as Ryabkov himself noted. Gazeta.Ru observed that many experts predicted the Republicans would lose one or both chambers of Congress, which, in the view of those making the forecast, would weaken President Donald Trump's political capabilities; these assessments remain forecasts, not a confirmed outcome. The outlets differ on the details: Gazeta.Ru, citing DDHQ, wrote about Democratic control of the House of Representatives, while Life.ru wrote about a majority in the Senate according to Decision Desk HQ; the final distribution of seats in both chambers remains subject to clarification. Separately, Gazeta.Ru mentioned that Elon Musk joked that he had failed to influence the election results.