Vladimir Putin has revealed his preference for the 2024 US Presidential election in a shock admission to a journalist.
The 71-year-old spoke with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin where he was asked “who would be better” for Russia as president of the United States – Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
Despite sharing a frosty relationship, Putin said his preference was for current president Joe Biden to remain in charge.
“He has more experience, and he is more predictable too, an old school politician,” Putin answered.
“That said, we will work with any leader of the United States who has the trust of the American people.”
The Kremlin leader also defended Biden amid concerns both within the US and globally that he’s not fit for the job due to claims of cognitive decline.
“Three years ago, there were already those back then who were saying that he was unfit for office. I did not see anything of this sort,” Putin said.
“The fact that he banged his head on something when descending from a helicopter, well, who of us has never banged his head on something?”
Russia editor of the BBC, Steve Rosenberg, however, was not convinced of the genuineness of Putin’s comments, considering Biden’s brutal descriptions of him as a “murderous dictator” and “pure thug” in the past.
He said if Putin had publicly stated he’d prefer Trump, it would have worked against the former president in the run-in to the 2024 election and worked in Biden’s favour instead.
“Donald Trump’s political enemies would have pounced on such an endorsement and accused the former US president of colluding with the Kremlin, of having ties to Russia two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” he wrote for the BBC.
Trump quickly responded to the comments from the Kremlin leader, claiming it was a “compliment”, suggesting Putin would rather Russia deal with a weaker president.
“President Putin of Russia has just given me a great compliment, actually,” he said at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday.
“He just said that he would much rather have Joe Biden as president than Trump. Now that’s a compliment… and of course, he would say that.”
Trump added that Putin was “not a fan” of him after he tried to prevent German-Russian pipeline Nord Stream 2 from being finished.
“I stopped Nord Stream 2, and (Biden) approved it right after I left, so Putin is not a fan of mine actually,” Trump said.
“He doesn’t want to have me. He wants Biden because he’s going to be given everything he wants, including Ukraine.
“He’s gonna have his dream of getting Ukraine because of Biden…the only president in the last five years that hasn’t given Russia anything is a president known as Donald J. Trump.”