The “deep state” is the real source of power in Washington, the Russian foreign minister has said

Russian President Vladimir Putin was joking when he endorsed US Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. The outcome of the election doesn’t matter, Lavrov added, because Washington is controlled by the “deep state.”

Speaking to reporters in Vladivostok earlier this month, Putin claimed that while he previously favored US President Joe Biden, he would root for Harris since Biden endorsed her after suspending his campaign in July. Harris “laughs so infectiously” that it suggests “everything is going well for her,” he added. Putin’s ‘endorsement’ immediately made headlines in the US, with the White House demanding that the Russian president “stop talking about our elections.”

Putin “has a good sense of humor” and “often resorts to jokes during his speeches and interviews,” Lavrov told Sky News Arabia earlier this week.

However, Moscow doesn’t “see any difference” between Harris, former US President Donald Trump, or any other American politician, “because the notorious ‘deep state’ is operating” in the US. 

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The term ‘deep state’ refers to the unelected and often unknown government bureaucrats who steer government policy, particularly the leaders of intelligence agencies and the military. Trump railed against the deep state throughout his presidency, accusing its members of obstructing his efforts to withdraw from Afghanistan and Syria, and orchestrating the ‘Russiagate’ hoax to damage his reputation and sour relations between Washington and Moscow.

Putin has asserted before that these shadowy bureaucrats are the real center of power in the US, telling American journalist Tucker Carlson in February that US policy is “not about the personality of the leader, it is about the elites’ mindset.”

“I have no illusions about the US leader,” Lavrov told Sky News Arabia, explaining that while Trump was friendly to himself and Putin, sanctions against Russia were still “introduced regularly, consistently and quite seriously” under his administration.

Likewise, despite Biden being “in such a physical condition that he has not been able to lead the country for a long time,” the US maintains its foreign policy. “It continues the military campaign through the Ukrainian regime, and in other parts of the world continues to block any resolutions at the UN Security Council that demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

READ MORE: White House responds to Putin’s support for Harris

“The ‘machine’ is working,” he stated, “and it is charged with never having a competitor who will threaten American dominance.”

Faced with this reality, Russia must rely on itself, Lavrov concluded. “We will never again in our history rely on the fact that a ‘good uncle’ will come to the White House or another Western capital and everything will be fine for us,” he declared.