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President Vladimir V. Putin stated on Wednesday that it was in Russia’s curiosity for President Biden to win a second time period, calling his American counterpart skilled and predictable, and dismissing issues about Mr. Biden’s age.
It was the primary time that Mr. Putin had immediately expressed a choice forward of the U.S. presidential election in November, and the feedback ran counter to the widespread assumption that the Kremlin was rooting for former President Donald J. Trump, the front-runner to be the Republican nominee. Mr. Putin made the feedback in a short interview with Russian state tv launched late Wednesday.
“Who is best for us: Biden or Trump?” the interviewer requested.
“Biden,” Mr. Putin responded. “He’s a extra skilled individual, he’s predictable, he’s a politician of the old-fashioned.”
Mr. Putin added, with a smile, “However we’ll work with any U.S. chief whom the American folks trust in.”
Some commentators rapidly dismissed Mr. Putin’s feedback as a provocation or maybe as a roundabout try and crush Mr. Biden’s marketing campaign by saddling him with the endorsement of one in every of America’s principal adversaries.
It was additionally the newest in a collection of feedback by Mr. Putin that appeared aimed toward conserving tensions with the USA in examine, coming at a time when different developments — akin to jitters about Russia’s doable plans to deploy a space-based nuclear weapon — threaten to exacerbate the strains within the international locations’ relations.
Mr. Trump shocked policymakers this previous week when he stated that he would invite Russia “to do regardless of the hell they need” to NATO member international locations that had not met their commitments on army spending.
Referring to Mr. Trump’s feedback, Mr. Putin stated within the interview on Wednesday, “Allow them to determine it out themselves — that’s their drawback.”
“I feel there’s no level to NATO anymore, it is mindless,” Mr. Putin added. “It has only one goal — as an instrument of U.S. overseas coverage.”
Requested later about Mr. Biden’s well being, Mr. Putin defended his American counterpart — regardless that Russian state media typically echoes Republicans in denigrating Mr. Biden as being too outdated for his job. When he met Mr. Biden in Switzerland in 2021, Mr. Putin stated, “they have been already saying that he was incompetent. I didn’t see something prefer it.”
The commentary was Mr. Putin’s newest on American politics that appeared, superficially not less than, to carry out an olive department to the Biden administration. In his interview final week with Tucker Carlson, a former Fox Information host, Mr. Putin shunned criticizing Mr. Biden immediately and stated little about Mr. Trump, whereas calling on Washington to barter over Ukraine — a suggestion rapidly dismissed by the White Home.
(In Wednesday’s feedback, Mr. Putin additionally received in a dig at Mr. Carlson, describing his shock that Mr. Carlson had patiently “listened to my lengthy dialogues” and that he had not requested “powerful questions.”)
Even some supporters of Mr. Putin, nevertheless, questioned whether or not the Russian chief was real in his reward for Mr. Biden. One submit by a pro-Kremlin blogger known as the interview a “incredible session of midnight trolling” that will have been meant to profit Mr. Trump, given {that a} Putin endorsement just isn’t essentially an advantageous one in American politics.
Certainly, Mr. Trump stated at a marketing campaign occasion on Wednesday that Mr. Putin had paid him a “praise.”
“In fact he would say that,” Mr. Trump stated. “He needs to have Biden as a result of he’s going to be given every little thing.”
When he was president, Mr. Trump drew harsh criticism from Democrats for being overly solicitous of Russia and Mr. Putin. That was notably true after a 2018 summit in Helsinki, the place Mr. Trump selected to assist Mr. Putin over America’s personal intelligence businesses, earlier than attempting to backtrack.
Russia interfered forward of the 2016 election to assist Mr. Trump, the U.S. intelligence neighborhood has concluded, whereas Mr. Putin publicly known as Mr. Trump “a really brilliant and proficient man.” However afterward, there was widespread disappointment in Moscow that Mr. Trump didn’t ship on his marketing campaign rhetoric about bettering ties with Russia.
Requested about Mr. Trump in September, Mr. Putin stated, “I feel that there will likely be no basic adjustments within the Russia route of U.S. overseas coverage, irrespective of who’s elected president.”
Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.
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