Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted President Trump won the election without an assist from Moscow, calling him “a talented person.”
“Mr. Trump is not a career politician,” Putin told the Financial Times. “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.”
Recommended Stories
Putin has dismissed accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, despite the U.S. intelligence community and special counsel Robert Mueller concluding that Russia sought to help Trump win.
“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,” Putin said.
Trump is meeting with Putin during the G-20 summit in Japan this week. When asked Wednesday whether he would tell Putin not to interfere in the 2020 election, Trump told a reporter, “It’s none of your business.”
