Putin also said he broadly backs a USA plan to prepare a United Nations resolution on Syria – but that Moscow isn’t ready yet to withdraw its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “I think that I would probably get along with him very well”, Trump said of Putin in October.
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He warned that it’s not his place “to judge his virtue, that is up to the U.S. voters, but he is the absolutely leader of the presidential race”.
“He says he will want to reach another, deeper, level of relations (with Russia)”. How can we not welcome that?
The Republican candidate is “a very colorful character and talented”, Putin said after concluding his three-hour annual press conference in Moscow.
Asked about Putin’s comments, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said “it sounds pretty close” to a campaign endorsement for the Republican front-runner. Trump boasted that he got to know Putin “very well” while they were “stablemates” on the same 60 Minutes episode-“stablemates” meaning they were filming separate segments on separate continents.
I another he said: “I suggest Mr Trump visit the Ukraine and Syrian refugee camps to see if Putin is really respected and deserves praise”.
Mr Putin said “his phrases that he uses to increase his popularity” was not of Russia’s concern.
According to the New York Times, Putin praised Trump but stopped short of advocating that the America people should vote for him in the upcoming election.
Putin’s comments may be just as much as a thumb in the eye of British Prime Minister David Cameron as anything else.
And regarding Ukraine, the Russian president again denied that there are Russian troops operating inside eastern Ukraine where a pro-Russian separatist movement is fighting Ukrainian government troops. “But he is the absolute leader of the presidential race [in the US]”. Let him bomb them.
Trump has been soaring in polls in the USA and is the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary, this despite his often inflammatory remarks that have brought repeated condemnation.
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“They have never got pleasure from the spotlight being aimed at them”, he said.
