Putin Calls Trump Charges Persecution That Lays Bare ‘Rot’ in US
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(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin called the legal cases facing former US President Donald Trump “political persecution” that inadvertently benefits Russia by revealing the true face of its adversaries.
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“In that sense, if they try to compete with us in some way, it’s good because it shows who is competing against us,” Putin said at the keynote session of his annual economic forum in the Pacific Russian port city of Vladivostok on Tuesday.
Using language strikingly similar to Trump’s own, Putin said “everything that’s happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons.”
“And this is being done in front of the public in the US and the whole world,” he said. “They are airing their domestic problems.”
The cases piling up against Trump over alleged attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election show “the complete rot of the American political system,” Putin said.
Trump, who faces criminal and civil trials as he seeks the Republican Party’s nomination for president, has denounced all the cases against him as politically motivated attacks.
Putin, who once professed admiration for Trump by describing him as “an extraordinary individual, talented individual,” had less praise this time, saying the former US leader imposed more sanctions against Russia than anyone.
No matter who’s elected US president next year, there won’t be any fundamental change in the country’s foreign policy toward Russia, Putin said, while denying allegations that Russian connections helped Trump to the White House in 2016.
Trump, the leading GOP presidential contender for 2024, has in the past blamed the current US leadership for “almost forcing” Putin to invade Ukraine and has said he “would end that war in one day” if he were president by cutting a deal he hasn’t spelled out.
Putin responded by saying “we hear that Mr. Trump says he will solve pressing problems in a few days, including the Ukrainian crisis.”
“This can only please us, that’s good,” he said.
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