Putin won't congratulate Biden until legal action resolved
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin won't congratulate President-elect Joe Biden until legal challenges to the US election are resolved and the result is official, the Kremlin announced Monday.
Putin is one of a handful of world leaders who have not commented on Biden's victory, which was called by major news organizations on Saturday. But President Donald Trump's team has promised legal action in the coming days and refused to concede his loss, while alleging large-scale voter fraud, so far without proof.
When Trump won in 2016, Putin was prompt in offering congratulations but Trump's challenger in that election, Hillary Clinton, also conceded the day after the vote.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that this year is different.
Obviously, you can see that certain legal procedures are coming there, which were announced by the incumbent president therefore this situation is different, so we consider it correct to wait for the official announcement, he said.
The leaders of China, Brazil, and Turkey also are holdouts in offering congratulations. And Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he would wait to comment until the legal challenges over the vote were resolved.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Monday offered a similar explanation of why President Xi Jinping has stayed silent.
We understand the presidential election result will be determined following US laws and procedures, he said.
Peskov suggested that when the time comes, a congratulations message from Putin would come with all the expected protocol.
I remind you that Vladimir Putin said more than once that he will respect any choice of the American people, and will be ready to work with any chosen president of the United States, he said.
For now, Putin's holding back allows a delay in addressing that fraught question of how to improve relations.
Although Russian politicians widely lauded Trump's election in 2016, expecting him to make good on his promises of improving relations, his administration disappointed Moscow by enacting sanctions, expelling scores of Russian diplomats in the wake of the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and authorizing lethal weapons sales to Ukraine.
But Russia is characteristically wary of Democratic US administrations because they tend to be more forward about criticizing Russia on human rights and democracy issues.
Biden, in a 2011 trip to Russia while vice president, epitomized that approach in a speech at Moscow State University, the country's most prestigious higher education institute.
Don't compromise on the basic elements of democracy. You need not make that Faustian bargain," he told students.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
