Putin says Russia, US should agree not to meddle in each other's election

Moscow's relations with Washington are at post-Cold War lows as the election looms.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an interview with Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia and RT Arabic ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, in Sochi, Russia, in this undated picture released on October 13, 2019 (photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an interview with Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia and RT Arabic ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, in Sochi, Russia, in this undated picture released on October 13, 2019
(photo credit: SPUTNIK/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS)
President Vladimir Putin called on Friday for an agreement between Russia and the United States to guarantee not to engage in cyber-meddling in each other's elections.
In a statement ahead of the US presidential election on Nov. 3, Putin called for a reset between Russia and the United States and said he wanted an agreement between the two countries to prevent incidents in cyberspace.
"(I propose)... exchanging guarantees of non-interference in each other's internal affairs, including electoral processes, including using information and communication technologies and high-tech methods," he said.
Moscow's relations with Washington are at post-Cold War lows as the election looms.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election with the aim of tilting it in Donald Trump's favor, including by hacking into the campaign of his rival Hillary Clinton. Moscow denies that charge.
Trump is currently campaigning for re-election against Democrat Joe Biden.
"One of the main strategic challenges of our time is the risk of a large-scale confrontation in the digital sphere," Putin said in the Kremlin statement.
"We would like to once again appeal to the United States with a proposal to approve a comprehensive program of practical measures to reset our relations in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT)."
He proposed the two countries reach an agreement to prevent major cyberspace incidents, something he compared to a 1972 US-Soviet treaty reached at the height of the Cold War to prevent incidents at sea and in the air from escalating.