MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he prefers the “predictable” Joe Biden about Donald Trump as leader of the United States, but assured that the Kremlin is prepared to work with either of the two.
The Russian leader was asked about Moscow’s preference in the probable November electoral duel between the outgoing president of the United States and his predecessor and favorite in the Republican primaries.
“Biden. He has more experience. He is predictable, he is an old-school politician,” Putin responded.
The Kremlin chief, however, expressed his opposition to the White House’s foreign policy under Biden, who has led the Western response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.
“What we have to examine is the political position and that of the current administration is extremely harmful and wrong,” Putin said.
Biden’s health and age
The Russian president also downplayed doubts about the health and age of the Democratic leader, who will turn 82 weeks after the presidential elections.
“They said he was incapacitated, but I didn’t see anything like that,” Putin said. “Yes, he was looking at his papers, to be honest, and I was looking at mine; nothing serious”.
Opinion studies in the United States indicate that there is concern about Biden’s age, which in recent weeks has confused European leaders with their deceased predecessors.
The White House vehemently defended the president’s competence last week after a special counsel report described him as a “well-intentioned old man with a short memory.”
Biden himself responded angrily to the report and defended that his “memory is good,” but in that appearance he made a mistake by calling the Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al Sisi president of Mexico.
Relations between Russia and the West have plummeted to their lowest levels since the Cold War era after Putin sent his soldiers to Ukraine in February 2022.
Source: With information from AFP and AP
