Putin on Trump: ‘Bright and talented’

“But I think that I would probably get along with him very well, and I don’t think you would be having the kind of problems that you’re having right now”, he said. “They committed an enemy act against our aviation, but to say that we view Turkey as enemy state – that is not the case”.

“We never said that there weren’t people there dealing with certain tasks, including in the military sphere.”

Addressing nearly 1,400 reporters in a cavernous hall inside a Moscow conference centre, the Russian president dedicated a chunk of his annual news conference to spelling out why he saw no prospect of a rapprochement with Ankara.

“I have recently spoken about this with (U.S.) President (Barack) Obama, and with our friends from Saudi Arabia, and from other Arab nations”, Putin said.

Trump has also expressed strong support for Russia’s bombing campaign against terrorist groups in Syria, which started on September 30 following a formal request from Damascus.

Speaking after a press conference on Thursday, the Russian president hailed the billionaire tycoon as the “absolute leader in the presidential race”.

Russia, a top Syria ally, and the West continue to be split on the central issue in any discussions on a political transition: the fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russia began airstrikes to back Assad in September, but recently Russian analysts and government officials have expressed frustration with the slow speed of the offensive and ineffectiveness of the Syrian troops.

News news agencies said his quotes were from a new documentary to be released on Russian television on Sunday.

“The Russian armed forces have not employed all their capability in Syria and may use more means there if necessary”.

He also did not discount the suggestion that Turkey may have given the order to shoot down the Russian jet with the goal of pleasing the United States.

Putin and Trump also share a love of the limelight, although Putin’s public appearances generally have an element of control and calculation at odds with Trump’s apparent hair-trigger outbursts. But you didn’t ask me the question, you asked me a different question. “I don’t know if the Americans wanted it or not”, he added.

“Whoever it is, we are ready and want to develop our relations with the United States”, he said, adding that unlike the U.S., which “always tries to tell us… who to elect and who not to elect”, Russian Federation doesn’t do any such thing. Brent Crude was now trading at $37.16 to the barrel on Thursday.