Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country has always had "great respect" for the U.S. and hopes it will not be accused of meddling in the 2020 U.S. election.

Speaking to an audience at the Russia Calling investment forum in Moscow on Wednesday, Putin said he believed Russia had "many common interests with the United States."

"The U.S. is a great power, and we have always treated them with great respect, were twice allies in the two world wars, this is our common history," he said, according to a translation.

Relations between Putin and President Donald Trump have been cordial despite a raft of U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, its role in a pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine and its meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

There have been signs of sanction fatigue in Europe but Trump has been under pressure from U.S. lawmakers not to ease pressure on Russia, however. Russia's neighbor Ukraine is currently under the spotlight following a phone call between Trump and its new President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted an impeachment inquiry into the U.S. president, who is accused of trying to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden. Trump denies the accusation.

Putin said he hoped Russia would not be accused of meddling again as the focus has shifted on Ukraine. "Hopefully no one accuses us of election interference in the United States. Now they're accusing Ukraine. We'll let them deal with that themselves," he said.

"But these factors of internal politics and the internal political struggle in the United States has a negative impact on Russian-American relations. I hope this will come to an end in the future — we are ready," he said.