Putin Says Donald Trump Discussed Presidential Election With Him

Vladimir Putin has said that Donald Trump scolded him for "sympathizing" with Joe Biden when he was president.

In an interview with the RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state television channel, the Russian president was asked what he thought about the role he is "invisibly" playing on the 2024 U.S. election campaign trail in which both the current and former American presidents "mention you in their speeches."

Interviewer Dmitry Kiselyov, a Kremlin propagandist whom Putin appointed to head the state-controlled media group Rossiya Segodnya, suggested that the Russian leader had added "fuel to the fire" by recently suggesting that he would prefer Biden to retain the presidency.

Putin told Russian television in February that Biden's leadership would be better for Russia because he is a "more experienced person, he is predictable, he is a politician of the old formation." The comments prompted Kremlin propagandists to suggest Putin was trolling the Democratic and Republican contenders.

Putin replied: "I'm going to tell you one thing that will show that nothing has changed in my preferences here.

"We do not interfere in any elections. And, as I have said many times, we will work with any leader who is trusted by the American people, the American voter."

Putin added: "In the last year of his work as president, Mr Trump, today's presidential candidate, reproached me for sympathizing with Biden. He asked me in one of the conversations, 'Do you want Sleepy Joe to win?'"

"And then, to my surprise, they began to persecute him (Trump) because we allegedly supported him as a candidate. Well, it's some kind of complete nonsense."

He described how he thought that the U.S. election campaign trail was "becoming more and more uncivilized" adding that "the American political system cannot claim to be democratic in every sense of the word."

Newsweek has contacted the White House and the Trump team for comment.

Kiselyov also asked Putin if Russia was ready for a nuclear war, suggesting that "the better prepared we are for it, the less likely such a war will happen."

The Russian leader replied, "from a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready," as he touted how his country's nuclear triad, referring to nuclear-capable land-based missiles, submarines, and aircraft. "is more modern than any other triad."

The interview comes before Russians go to the polls from Friday in a presidential election that is tightly controlled and expected to return Putin to power with a large majority.

Update 03/13/24, 3:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information.