Putin Says Trump Is Front-Runner in U.S. Presidential Race Russian president welcomes Donald Trump’s calls for Washington to improve relations with Moscow By Paul Sonne
http://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-says-trump-is-front-runner-in-u-s-presidential-race-1450364780
MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin described Donald Trump as the “absolute front-runner” in the U.S. presidential campaign and a colorful and talented person, cheering the American real estate mogul’s calls to improve U.S.-Russian relations.
Mr. Putin made the comments Thursday after his annual news conference, during which he vowed to work with any leader U.S. voters elect. Afterward, the Russian president praised Mr. Trump, even as he cautioned it wasn’t Russia’s place to judge American candidates.
“He’s a very colorful and talented person, without a doubt,” Mr. Putin said, according to Russian news agencies. “It’s not for us to judge his merits, that’s a task for the American voters, but he’s the absolute front-runner we see today in the presidential race.”
Republican candidates have split over the way the U.S. should approach Mr. Putin, an increasingly important figure in foreign affairs as the conflict in Syria dominates headlines. Mr. Trump has broken with his main competitors, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have called for the U.S. to take a firmer stance against Mr. Putin. The real estate mogul has proposed a rapprochement with the Kremlin and vowed to get along well with the Russian president.
Mr. Putin praised Mr. Trump’s stance. “He says he wants to move to another level of relations, to closer and deeper relations with Russia, how can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it,” the Russian president said on Thursday.
Like Mr. Trump, the Russian president has drummed up domestic support by promising to revive his country’s greatness. Both politicians have appealed to voters looking for strongmen leaders and have presented themselves as an alternative to President Barack Obama.
Mr. Putin said the “turns of phrase Trump uses to increase his popularity” were American domestic issues that didn’t concern Russia, according to the Interfax news agency.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has taken a far more aggressive stance against Mr. Putin.
During the 2008 presidential election, Mrs. Clinton said Mr. Putin “was a KGB agent, by definition he doesn’t have a soul.” Mr. Putin later responded by saying, “I think at a minimum it’s important for a government leader to have a brain.”
Shortly after becoming Secretary of State, in early 2009, Mrs. Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a big red “reset button” and promised to reboot relations between Washington and Moscow.
Relations soured again when widespread protests against the Russian government erupted in Moscow in late 2011 in the wake of contested parliamentary elections. The street movement marked the biggest ever public threat to the Putin elite’s rule.
Mr. Putin, then prime minister, blamed Mrs. Clinton for fomenting the unrest. He accused the then Secretary of State of giving a signal to Russian opposition activists and inciting them into action. Mrs. Clinton said the U.S. had expressed well-founded concerns about conduct during the parliamentary elections in support of the Russian population’s rights.
The following year, Mr. Putin returned to Russia’s presidency. The change in leadership ushered in a renewed crackdown on Russia’s fledgling opposition movement, snuffing out the possibility of more street protests, and a far more antagonistic Kremlin stance toward the U.S.
Since then, Mr. Putin has expressed a desire to end U.S. hegemony in world affairs. The return of the U.S. as an enemy in Russian public consciousness—particularly after Crimea’s annexation and the conflict in east Ukraine—has boosted Mr. Putin’s ratings at home.
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