Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced his support for Vice President Kamala Harris at a press conference on Thursday, saying he wants the Biden administration to continue and that he wants her to be the next US president because of her “expressive and captivating laugh.”
Putin made the remarks in jest at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, ostensibly mocking the very idea of Russia having an advantage in U.S. elections or meddling in American politics.
“I would have said that our beloved (if we can call him that) is the current President Biden. He dropped out of the race, but he encouraged all his supporters to support Harris. So we will too. We support her,” Putin said.
“She laughs expressively and contagiously, so that means all is well with her,” he said.
Putin said he did not want former President Donald Trump to return to the White House because he had “introduced more restrictions and sanctions against Russia than any other president had ever done before.”
“If Harris is doing well, she will probably refrain from this type of behavior,” he suggested.
“Ultimately the choice is up to the American people and we respect that choice. It's not up to us to decide who the leading candidate is. At the end of the day, it's the choice of the American people,” he added.
Bloomberg News and other US media Hurry To assure readers that President Putin has not genuinely endorsed Ms. Harris as a presidential candidate:
Putin's comments came a day after the Biden administration said Russian-backed groups had been working for years to interfere in U.S. elections and broadly advance Kremlin interests, effectively tantamount to a provocation against the president. The FBI cited internal planning documents from one group saying it was in Russia's interest for Donald Trump or another Republican candidate to win the White House.
But it also reflects the Kremlin's view that relations between the two countries have hit their lowest point in decades over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and there is little prospect of improvement no matter who wins the U.S. presidential election. Putin said on state television in February that he would prefer Biden to Trump in the White House, describing him as “predictable.”
Newsweek I started up the Wayback Machine and frantically turned the dial back to July. comment A message from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peksov suggests Russia may not be all that happy about Harris taking over the Oval Office.
Interestingly, what Peksov was actually saying was that Harris has such a poor track record as vice president and is such an unknown figure that it would be difficult to predict her Russia policy as president.
“At this point in time, it is not possible to assess Harris' suitability as a potential candidate from the perspective of bilateral relations, because so far her contribution to bilateral relations has not been recognized,” Peskov said in July.
“There has been a lot of rhetoric that has been extremely unfriendly towards our country, but her actions regarding bilateral relations have not been positive or negative,” he said.
Reuters, Featured Both Putin and the moderator at the Eastern Economic Forum “smiled” when talking about Harris.
