PUTIN: RUSSIA PREFERS BIDEN TO TRUMP
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow would prefer to see United States President Joe Biden win a second term, describing him as more experienced than Donald Trump.
Speaking in an interview with a correspondent from Russian state television, Putin declared that he would work with any US leader who is elected, but noted that he would prefer Biden’s victory when asked who would be a better choice from the point of view of Russia.
“Biden. He’s more experienced, more predictable. He’s a politician of the old formation,” Putin said. “But we will work with any US leader whom the American people trust.”
Putin’s comments were his first about the upcoming US presidential election, which is likely to pit Biden against Trump, and come as tensions between Republicans and Democrats are high over the president’s attempts to send more military aid to Ukraine.
However, Trump’s recent statements calling into question US funding for Kyiv and saying he wants to shake up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could better serve Putin.
Biden accused Trump on Tuesday of having “bowed down to a Russian dictator.”
Asked about speculation on Biden’s health issues, Putin responded: “I’m not a doctor and I don’t consider it proper to comment on that.”
Biden’s team worked to alleviate Democratic concerns over alarms raised by a special counsel about his age and memory. They came in a report determining that the president would not be charged with any criminal activity for possessing classified documents after he left office.
Putin noted that the talk about Biden’s health comes as “the election campaign is gaining speed in the US, and it’s taking an increasingly sharp course.”
He said allegations of Biden’s health problems were also circulating at the time when they met in Switzerland in June 2021, adding that he witnessed the contrary and saw the US leader in good shape.
“They talked about him being incapacitated, but I saw nothing of the kind,” Putin said. “Yes, he was peeking at his papers, to be honest. I was peeking at mine, not a big deal.”
At the same time, Putin said he regarded the Biden administration policy as incorrect.
Ties between Russia and the West have plunged to their lowest levels since the Cold War era after Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
“I believe that the position of the current administration is badly flawed and wrong, and I have told President Biden about that,” Putin said.
Putin has claimed that he sent troops into Ukraine to protect Russian speakers there and to prevent a threat to Russia’s security posed by Kyiv’s bid to join NATO. Ukraine and its Western allies have denounced Moscow’s action as an unprovoked act of aggression.
Putin argued that Russia was forced to act after Ukraine and its allies refused to fulfill a 2015 agreement to grant more powers to separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists launched a rebellion in 2014.
“We only can regret that we didn’t act earlier, thinking that we are dealing with decent people,” Putin said.