ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — The United States and Russia are very close to engaging in “direct military conflict,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned in an interview published Friday in a Turkey daily, just days ahead of a US presidential election.

“Under the current president (Joe Biden), who has taken the downward spiral of Russophobia in the US to its logical conclusion, our countries are on the brink of direct military conflict,” he told the Hurriyet daily, without elaborating.

Asked about next week’s US election pitting former Republican president Donald Trump against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Lavrov said the outcome would make little difference to Russia.

“We have no preference. When the Trump administration was in power, it adopted the highest number of anti-Russian sanctions compared to its predecessors,” he said.

“No matter who wins the elections, we don’t think the United States’ anti-Russian bent can change.”

Although Trump has previously made clear his fondness for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the two men are not close and have maintained a deliberately ambiguous relationship. Last week, the Russian president said his relationship with Washington would depend on what attitude it adopts after the vote, as he welcomed as “sincere” Trump’s remarks about wanting to end the Ukraine conflict.

In September, Microsoft claimed Russia operatives had ramped up their disinformation operations to malign the Harris campaign through conspiracy-fuelled videos, raising concerns over foreign influence operations targeting the vote.