Putin says he prefers Joe Biden's presidency over Trump in White House

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an on-camera interview with pro-Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin on Wednesday (Feb 14), said that US President Joe Bidenis better for Russia in comparison to Donald Trump.

When questioned by Zarubin regarding the upcoming US presidential election, Putin said that Biden would be better for Russia "because he is a more experienced person, he is predictable, he is a politician of an old formation".

However, he said that Russia would “work with any leader of the US who gains the trust of the American people".

Putin dismisses issue of Biden's age and mental health

Speaking about the questions being raised on Biden's age and mental health, he said that when they had met in 2021, he failed to notice anything peculiar.

"Even then [three years ago] people were saying that he was incompetent, but I did not see anything of this sort. Yes, he kept looking at his papers, but to be honest I kept doing the same. So there was nothing peculiar,” he said.

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Putin further stated that in order to judge the current administration's actions, one should understand its “political position".

“I believe that the position of the current administration is extremely harmful and erroneous,” said Putin, regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine.

As perPutin, the war “could have been over a year and a half ago” if agreements reached in a meeting in Istanbul in March 2022 were fulfilled. However, he did not specifically say what agreements he was referring to.

The Russian president said that he regretted that he “didn’t start active actions in Ukraine earlier” than February 2022, claiming that Western leaders had lied to Russia about “not expanding NATO to the East".

Watch:Russian President Putin says he prefers Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the White House

“We were and are concerned about the possibility of Ukraine being drawn into NATO since this threatens our security,” said Putin.

The Russian president further alleged that the Minsk agreement, which was a ceasefire protocol signed by Russia and Ukraine in 2015, was never meant to be followed but used "to buy time to load Ukraine with additional weapons".

The Russian leader further expressed disappointment regarding his recent interview with former Fox presenter Tucker Carlson.

“I honestly thought he would be aggressive and ask tough questions. I wasn’t only ready for that, I wanted that because it would give me the opportunity to give tough answers back,” said Putin.

“To be frank, I didn’t fully enjoy that interview,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)