This combination of pictures created on December 30, 2016 shows a file photo taken on December 28, 2016 of US President-elect Donald Trump (L) in Palm Beach, Florida; and a file photo taken on December 23, 2016, of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking in Moscow. (AFP PHOTO / DON EMMERT AND Natalia KOLESNIKOVA)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Republican leader in the U.S. Senate said on Sunday U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's hope to improve relations with Russia would be "dashed" quickly.

"My suspicion is these hopes will be dashed pretty quickly," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in an interview with CBS.

"The Russians are clearly a big adversary, and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election," he added.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted that "Only 'stupid' people, or fools" do not want a good relationship with Russia.

"When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!" he tweeted.

McConnell on Sunday played down Trump's intention to improve relations with Russia, arguing that former President George W. Bush also had the same hope at the outset of presidency.

"I don't think it is all that unusual for a new president to want to get along with the Russians," said McConnell.

The U.S. intelligence released a report on Friday, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering "an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election" in order to "undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process."

Trump had repeatedly refused to accept the findings that Russia has intervened in the 2016 presidential election. The Russian government has also denied the accusations.