Vladimir Putin endorses Joe Biden for US president over Donald Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a surprising revelation while speaking to a journalist.
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Vladimir Putin has publicly endorsed Joe Biden as his preferred candidate for the upcoming US election, a move that was immediately welcomed by Donald Trump.
The Russian President made comments in support of the current US President as he criticised journalist Tucker Carlson for his recent softball interview.
Mr Putin indicated he would prefer it if Joe Biden was elected over Donald Trump, the two men widely predicted to be on the ballot this November in the US.
“He is more experienced and more predictable. He is an old school politician. But we will work with any US leader, elected by the people of America.” Mr Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin, according to Russian state-controlled media outlet TASS.
The comments were immediately seized on by former US President and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who said it was a “great compliment”, while claiming he would immediately end the war in Ukraine. He regularly describes Mr Putin as “smart”.
“President Putin of Russia, he’s just said that he would much rather have Joe Biden as president than Trump. Now that’s a compliment. A lot of people said, ‘Oh, gee, that’s too bad.’ No, no, that’s a good thing.” Mr Trump said.
He later added: “Of course he would say that. He wants to have Biden because he’s going to be given everything.”
The endorsement by the Russian President, the leader of one of America’s main adversaries, would likely not be welcomed by the Biden campaign.
The BBC’s Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg described Putin’s backing for Mr Biden as “not what it seems” and instead a calculated move to help Mr Trump.
It’s not the first time that Mr Trump has stated Russia would prefer Mr Biden as president, with Mr Trump using it as a talking point to hype his foreign policy credentials.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Mr Trump’s professed plan to “have [the Ukraine-Russia] war settled in one day” is “very dangerous”, fearing a Trump-led peace plan would allow Russia to keep the territorial gains it seized during the invasion — widely considered as illegal under international law.
Mr Putin’s statement is difficult to take at face value given that he’s accused of ordering Russian interference in the 2016 elections through Project Lakhta — an operation designed to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to the US Department of Justice.
The Mueller report detailed extensive contacts between Russian agents and the Trump campaign but did not find sufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr Trump.
The former US president recently raised eyebrows when he recounted a conversation he claims to have had while president with a leader of a major ally, during which he said he would let Russia do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO member countries if they did not “pay their bills”.
Mr Biden, in contrast, has pledged to “to defend every inch of NATO territory”. The current US President has also been critical of Mr Putin, describing him as a “killer” even before the invasion of Ukraine.
In another surprise, Mr Putin also defended Mr Biden’s health, which along with Trump’s, has become an election issue given the men are aged 81 and 77 respectively.
“They talked about him being incapacitated, but I saw nothing of the kind,” Mr Putin said.
“Yes, he was peeking at his papers, to be honest, I was peeking at mine, not a big deal,” he added.
Mr Putin also referred to his recent interview with Mr Carlson, stating he was not satisfied with the interview because he had been ready to answer “pointed questions” but was not given an opportunity to do so.
“To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions,” he said.
“I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way. Frankly, I did not get full satisfaction from this interview.”
The comments are puzzling given Mr Putin spent nearly an hour outlining his revisionist and irredentist views on the history of Eastern Europe during the sit-down — and redressed Mr Carlson when he tried to move the conversation forward..
Meanwhile, Mr Carlson has been mocked for claiming that low costs in Russia would “radicalise” Americans against their government.
Tucker Carlson goes shopping at a Russian grocery store. pic.twitter.com/TJR3JnUElH
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) February 15, 2024
He visited a Moscow supermarket and was surprised to find his basket of goods cost about $US100 ($AU153).
However, he failed to mention that the exchange rate highly favours American tourists in many less-developed countries and that Russians spend about half their salary on food, according to TASS.
American political science researcher and right-wing political commentator Richard Hanania
quipped: “This is beyond parody. Hard hitting American journalist finds that in a poor country food is cheaper, says it has radicalised him against his own society.”
Australian activist Drew Pavlou also sought to fact-check the video writing: “[Mr Carlson] stocks up a shopping cart in Moscow and expresses amazement that it cost him just [$US100]... the [US dollar] is extremely strong in poor countries. That’s basically 1/10th of the average monthly wage in Moscow.”
Originally published as Vladimir Putin endorses Joe Biden for US president over Donald Trump
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