U.S. President Donald Trump is "a talented person" who "knows very well what his voters expect from him,” according to Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with the FT, the Russian president referred to Trump as “Donald” several times and said: “Mr. Trump is not a career politician ... I do not accept many of his methods when it comes to addressing problems. But do you know what I think? I think that he is a talented person. He knows very well what his voters expect from him.”
Putin also rejected accusations of Russian interference in the U.S. election, saying: “Russia has been accused, and, strange as it may seem, it is still being accused ... of alleged interference in the U.S. election. What happened in reality? Mr. Trump looked into his opponents’ attitude to him and saw changes in American society, and he took advantage of this.”
In the interview, which was published Thursday evening and took place in the Kremlin's cabinet office, Putin said it was time to move on from the Salisbury poisoning scandal that soured Moscow's relations with the U.K.
“Listen, all this fuss about spies and counterspies, it is not worth serious interstate relations. This spy story, as we say, it is not worth five kopecks,” he said.
Putin will meet with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. It will be the first time they have met since London accused two Russian intelligence officers of using a chemical weapon against former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March last year.
May's official spokesperson said the meeting “does not represent a normalization of relations.”
However, Putin told the FT: "The list of accusations and allegations against one another could go on and on ... We need to just leave it alone and let security agencies deal with it."
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