Putin prefers Biden
Observers are skeptical as Russian leader lauds ‘old school’ president
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday it was in Russia’s interest for President Joe Biden to win a second term, calling his U.S. counterpart experienced and predictable and dismissing concerns about Biden’s age.
It was the first time Putin had directly expressed a preference in the U.S. presidential election in November, and the comments ran counter to the widespread assumption the Kremlin was rooting for former President Donald Trump, the front-runner to be the Republican nominee. Putin made the comments in a brief interview with Russian state television released late Wednesday.
“Who is better for us: Biden or Trump?” the interviewer asked.
“Biden,” Putin responded. “He is a more experienced person; he is predictable; he is a politician of the old school.”
Some commentators dismissed Putin’s comments as a provocation or perhaps as a roundabout attempt to weigh down Biden’s campaign by saddling him with the endorsement of one of America’s main adversaries.
It was also the latest in a series of comments by Putin that seemed aimed at keeping tensions with the United States in check, coming at a time when other developments — such as jitters about Russia’s possible plans to deploy a space-based nuclear weapon — threaten to exacerbate the strains in the countries’ relations.
Trump stunned policymakers this past week when he said he would invite Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to NATO member countries that had not met their commitments on military spending.
Referring to Trump’s comments, Putin said in the interview Wednesday, “Let them figure it out themselves — that’s their problem.”
“I think there’s no point to NATO anymore, it makes no sense,” Putin added. “It has just one purpose — as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy.”
Asked later about Biden’s health, Putin defended his U.S. counterpart — though Russian state media often echoes Republicans in calling Biden too old for his job. When he met Biden in Switzerland in 2021, Putin said, “they were already saying that he was incompetent. I didn’t see anything like it.”
The commentary was Putin’s latest on U.S. politics that seemed, superficially at least, to hold out an olive branch to the Biden administration. In his interview last week with Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host, Putin refrained from criticizing Biden directly and said little about Trump, while calling on Washington to negotiate over Ukraine — a suggestion quickly dismissed by the White House.
Even some supporters of Putin, however, questioned whether the Russian leader was genuine in his praise for Biden. One post by a pro-Kremlin blogger called the interview a “fantastic session of midnight trolling” that may have been meant to benefit Trump, given that a Putin endorsement is not necessarily an advantageous one in U.S. politics.