Washington

The White House has urged Vladimir Putin to 'stop talking' about the US presidential election after the Russian president said he backs Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. 

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"The only people who should get to determine who the next president of United States is are the American people," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

"We would greatly appreciate it if Mr Putin would, a) stop talking about our election, and b) stop interfering in it."

Biden withdrew from the presidential race last month after his cognitive issues became a major headache for the Democratic Party. Under pressure from all quarters, Biden dropped the re-election bid but instantly endorsed Biden as the nominee. 

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Since then Harris has made huge improvements in the poll numbers and currently looks set to edge Trump to the keys of the White House.  

Watch | Putin armed with new nuclear missiles snubs the West

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What did Putin say? 

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Thursday, Putin said he is supporting Harris because of how she “laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that everything is fine with her”. 

"Our ‘favourite,’ if you can call it that, was the current president, Mr [Joe] Biden. But he was removed from the race, and he recommended all his supporters to support Ms Harris. Well, we will do so – we will support her," added Putin. 

Both Putin and the moderator were seen smiling as he made the remark which drew applause from the audience. 

While US agencies claim that Putin ran a disinformation campaign during the 2016 elections to help Trump's campaign against Hilary Clinton, the Kremlin has denied the accusations.

Also read | Russian President Putin says ‘friends’ India, China, Brazil could act as mediators in peace talks with Ukraine

Similar claims were made during the 2020 presidential elections which Joe Biden won. However, earlier this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that there was no Russian disinformation and that the FBI and other agencies forced the social media platforms to censor content. 

"That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply," Zuckerberg said.

"It's since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story."

Meta demoting the story allowed Joe Biden to carry on his presidential campaign unperturbed which in hindsight, may have cost him dearly if the report was allowed to remain at the forefront of the social media platform.  

(With inputs from agencies)