President Vladimir Putin called on Friday for an agreement between Russia and the US to guarantee not to engage in cyber-meddling in each other’s elections.

In a statement ahead of the US presidential election on November 3, Putin called for a reset between Russia and the US 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 favour, including by hacking into the campaign of his rival Hillary Clinton. Moscow denies that charge.

“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 US with a proposal to approve a comprehensive programme of practical measures to reset our relations in the use of information and communication technologies.”

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.

He also called for the two countries to fully restore communication lines between their respective agencies to discuss key international information on security issues.