Putin, in his annual news conference in Moscow, said he welcomes the flamboyant Trump’s call for better US relations with Moscow.
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“The pandering to Vladimir Putin is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in any president”, he said of President Obama. “But, as we can see, he is an absolute leader in the presidential race”.
“Now we don’t have to get rid of [Syrian leader] Bashar al-Assad, everything’s fine with the Russians, we are going to get along with Vladimir Putin”.
“He is a bright and talented person without any doubt”, Putin said, adding that Trump is “an outstanding and talented personality”.
“On domestic politics, his manner of speaking, what he employs to raise his popularity” that is none of Russia’s business, Putin said. “I would get along with a lot of the world leaders that this country is not getting along with”.
Trump has previously said that he is very different from Putin but argued he would be able to work well with the Russian leader.
Trump said in a statement that he was honored by the comments.
There was no opportunity for a follow-up question to examine how many military specialists Putin believes were in Ukraine and what exact tasks they were carrying out.
The president again denied the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine, predicting that Russia-Ukraine economic relations would deteriorate as from January 1, 2016 when the Ukraine-EU free trade regime starts.
Putin indicated that he was particularly struck by Trump’s interest in deepening relations with Russian Federation.
Appearing on CBS’s “Face The Nation” in October, Trump told host John Dickerson that he was “all for it” if Russian Federation attacked Syria.
“I got to know him very well because we were both on ’60 Minutes, ‘ we were stable mates, and we did very well that night”, he said in the fourth GOP debate, touting the show’s ratings. “If he wants to be bombing the hell out of ISIS, which he’s starting to do, if he wants to be bombing ISIS, let him bomb them”.
“They [Turkish authorities] thought that we would turn tail and run! I think we probably work together much more so than right now”. “What the hell do we care?”
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Will Trump’s fans be fazed by Putin’s expression of support?
