Putin: Russia to Work with Any Elected US President

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow is ready to work with any president that the people in the United States elect, Press T.V reported.

Putin said in an interview with CNN aired on Sunday that Russia will “work with any president that the American people will vote for.”

The Russian president said the US is a “great power” and his country wants to continue its relations with Washington.

He noted that no matter how the November elections are held, there will eventually be a new president with broad authority.

“I know that there are complex economic and political processes in the United States. At the moment, the world needs a country as strong as the US is. And we do need the US, too,” he said.

Putin, however, warns against any interference of Washington in Russia’s affairs. Saying, “What we do not need is of them (Americans) to interfere with our affairs all the time, to instruct us how to live, to prevent Europe from building relations with us.”

Putin further praised presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for proposing to “restore full-fledged Russian-American relations.”

He said Moscow welcomes such proposals, but “we never interfere into the internal political processes of other countries, especially those in the United States.”

He denied calling Trump as a “brilliant” person, saying he was mistranslated at the time.

“I only said that he was a bright person. Isn’t he bright? He is. I did not say anything else about him,” he added.

Being asked about presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, the Russian President said he has not worked with her and that he likely “has her own view regarding the development of the Russian-American relations.”

Relations between Washington and Moscow are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War in 1991, largely due to the Ukraine crisis. The US and its allies accuse Moscow of sending troops into eastern Ukraine in support of the pro-Russian forces. Moscow has long denied involvement in Ukraine’s crisis.

The US-led military buildup in NATO member states bordering Russia has drawn strong objections from Moscow, followed by warnings of a well-measured response.

R.S