From Russia with love: Putin, Trump sing each other’s praises

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.

“There is no doubt that he is a very bright and talented man”, the Russian leader said. But as much as those words sound overtly like praise, there are some murky nuances.

Trump responded that he was honoured.

He added that Russian Federation wanted to develop relations with the United States, irrespective of who will become the next American President.

“He’s saying he wants to go to another level of relations – closer, deeper relations with Russia”, Putin continued. Can we really not welcome that?

“Russia’s plans for settling Syrian crisis coincide on key issues with the USA ones”, Putin said.

“I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin”.

Putin “does not like Obama at all”. He doesn’t respect Obama at all.

‘I would like to see the Republican party come together, and I’ve been a little bit divisive in the sense of hitting people hard, ‘ Trump said.

Meanwhile, Putin described US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as a talented and outstanding man, welcoming his stance on Russian Federation.

Turkey’s downing of a Russian SU-24 fighter bomber near the Syrian-Turkish border on November 24 prompted Putin to impose economic sanctions on Turkey who he claimed had stabbed Russia in the back.

However recently cooperation between Moscow and Washington accelerated over the Syrian crisis.

And in remarks closely mirroring Trump’s assessment of the campaign, the Russian leader called Trump “the absolute leader of the presidential race”, according to the Russian TASS news agency.

Featuring an audience of more than a thousand journalists and with questions sent via social media from around Russian Federation, the event plays to Mr. Putin’s personal strengths.

“There is a plan”, Putin said.

He also hedged on Trump’s penchant for blunt language that provokes both devotion and revulsion.

Trump said in a statement that he was honored by the comments. “I have always felt that Russian Federation and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect”.

Putin said that he was satisfied with the leadership of Russia’s Central Bank, which steeply hiked interest rates to prevent inflation, despite the pain that the move has dealt to businesses and borrowers.

Since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that it said had violated its airspace, Putin has engaged in a war of words with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and ordered a number of retaliatory measures.

Trump, however, has repeatedly touted his joint appearance with Putin on an episode of CBS’s “60 Minutes” this fall, referring to himself and Putin as “stablemates”.

“I think that I would at the same time get along very well with him”.