Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he welcomed comments by US presidential candidate Donald Trump that he wanted deeper relations with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he welcomed comments by US presidential candidate Donald Trump that he wanted deeper relations with Russia.
“He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that... He is an absolute leader of the presidential race as we see it today,” Mr Putin told reporters.
Mr Putin said that Trump’s comments to his domestic audience while on the campaign trail were not Russia’s concern, but added that he likes the Republican hopeful’s statements on Russia.
“On domestic politics, his manner of speaking, what he employs to raise his popularity” — that is none of Russia’s business, Mr Putin said. “It’s not our concern to evaluate his work.”
Some of Mr Trump’s statements on Mr Putin are apparently music to the Russian President’s ear.“He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that Of course we welcome it,” Mr Putin said.
Mr Trump was asked Wednesday what he would do to get Russia’s military presence out of Syria, and answered that he would first get Mr Putin’s respect. “I will get along — I think — with Putin, and I will get along with others, and we will have a much more stable — stable world,” Mr Trump said. “I would talk to him. I would get along with him.”
