Putin says Russia will work with any elected US president

ISTANBUL

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that his country does not interfere in elections and it will work with any president elected by the American voters.

“We do not interfere in any kind of election, and as I have said many times, we will work with any leader who is trusted by the American people, the American voter,” Putin said during an interview with the Rossiya-1 state TV channel.

He said former US President Donald Trump reproached him during the last year of his term for “sympathizing” with now President Joe Biden.

"He asked me in one of the conversations: do you want Sleepy Joe to win?

“And then, to my surprise, they began to persecute him (Trump) because we allegedly supported him as a candidate. Well, it's some kind of complete nonsense,” Putin said.

He said the election campaign in the US is “becoming increasingly uncivilized," and that he thinks it is “obvious to everyone that the American political system cannot claim to be democratic in every sense of the word.”

Last month, Putin had said he would prefer Biden to Trump as US president, describing him as more experienced and predictable.

Biden and predecessor Trump have both passed the delegate thresholds to clinch their parties' nominations, and a rematch in US presidential election is set for November.

‘Red lines’

Speaking about comments from Western countries that they have no “red lines” with regards to Russia, Putin said they must understand that Moscow will have no “red lines” to them either.

Putin also spoke about the recent leak of conversations between German air force officers about supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine, saying they are “fantasizing and encouraging themselves.”

“They are trying to intimidate us. As for the Federal Republic of Germany, there are constitutional problems there. They correctly say: if these Taurus hit that part of the Crimean Bridge, which, of course, even according to their concepts, is Russian territory, this is a violation of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany,” the president said.

He argued that Russia is closely following developments in this sense, indicating that Ukraine’s use of British and American missiles “does not change the situation on the battlefield.”

“Yes, they cause us harm, of course, that’s obvious. But, in essence, this does not change the course of hostilities and the consequences that inevitably occur for the opposite side,” he said.

Putin said Finland and Sweden benefited more from their adherence to neutrality, and that their recent accession to NATO is based “purely on political considerations.”

“Perhaps they very much wanted to be members of the Western club, under some kind of umbrella. Why do they need this, I frankly don’t understand. This is an absolutely senseless step from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests,” he said.