MOSCOW, Dec. 17 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his endorsement of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, calling the real estate mogul a “really brilliant and talented person.”
Interfax news wire reports the remarks came after Putin’s annual press conference on Thursday.
“He’s a really brilliant and talented person, without any doubt. It’s not our job to judge his qualities, that’s a job for American voters, but he’s the absolute leader in the presidential race,” Putin told reporters. “He says he wants to move on to a new, more substantial relationship, a deeper relationship with Russia, how can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome that.”
BuzzFeed reports that throughout the campaign, Trump has highlighted his affinity with Putin, saying he plans to develop a better relationship with him if he is elected president.
“I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin,” Trump said at a July 30 press conference. “I just think so. People say, ‘What do you mean?’ I think I’d get along well with him. Obama and him. He hates Obama. Obama hates him. We have unbelievably bad relationships.”
At the same press conference, Trump referred to a “major business” he had in Russia for a short period of time, and said he had a “very good relationship” with the people in Russia during that time.
Last month Trump claimed he got to know Putin when they were on 60 Minutes together. “I got to know him very well, because we were both on 60 Minutes, we were stablemates,” he said. The segments featuring Putin and Trump, however, were filmed on two different continents and Trump and Putin did not actually meet.
