Donald Trump, the Republican US presidential front-runner, is apparently “honoured” that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers the real-estate magnate a “flamboyant” and “very talented” man.
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“He is a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented”, Putin told journalists after his annual press conference in Moscow.
Putin said: “He is saying that he wants to move to a different level of relations with Russian Federation, to a closer, deeper one”.
Putin assessed Trump as “the absolute leader in the American presidential race”, suggesting his comments could be an early attempt to curry favor with a man he may have to deal with.
“I think President Obama has effectively managed our relationship with Russia in a way that has advanced the interests of the United States, while also standing up for the basic global norms that Russia violated based on their activities along and across the Ukrainian border”, he said, referring to Russia’s support for Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“(Putin) sees himself as someone who doesn’t mince words and who gets into verbal fights, as well as knife fights”, Gessen said.
Does Putin think Trump is intelligent?
Putin offered high praise for the billionaire businessman-turned-Republican presidential front-runner on Thursday during an annual news conference with reporters. “Of course we welcome that”, Putin said. He has also called Putin his “stable mate” since both were featured on the same episode of a recent edition of CBS’ “60 Minutes”.
“Russia and Turkey certainly have to reestablish the relations of trust that we have always had, but our patience has a limit”, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, recently told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
“The Turks”, he said, “decided to lick the Americans in a certain place”.
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While fellow Republican contenders have been highly skeptical of stepped up Russian military involvement in Syria, Trump has welcomed it. “Maybe they thought we’d run away from there, but Russian Federation is not that kind of country”, Mr Putin added, noting how Moscow had bolstered air defences in Syria after the incident. Trump said, despite US wariness of Russia’s presence in Syria, which is mainly aimed at bolstering the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, who the Obama administration has called for to leave.
