ASTANA (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin praised U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday as an experienced and intelligent politician, but said he did not believe Trump was safe after attempts on his life.
Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in July. In a separate incident in September, a man was charged with attempted assassination after allegedly positioning himself with a rifle at one of Trump’s Florida golf courses.
Speaking to reporters in Kazakhstan after a summit, Putin said he had been shocked by the way the U.S. election campaign had unfolded.
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He cited “the absolutely uncivilised methods used to battle against Trump, up to and including an assassination attempt – and more than once”.
“By the way, in my opinion, he is not safe now,” said Putin.
“Unfortunately, in the history of the United States various incidents have happened. I think he (Trump) is intelligent and I hope he’s cautious and understands this.”
Putin, who is himself heavily protected, said he had been even more shocked though by how Trump’s family and children had been criticised by political opponents during the U.S. election campaign.
He called such behaviour “revolting” and said in Russia not even “bandits” would resort to such methods.
Talking about what he described as the Biden administration’s decision to escalate the war in Ukraine by allowing Kyiv to strike Russia with Western missiles, Putin speculated that it could be a ploy to either help Trump by giving him something to roll back or a way of making his life more difficult with Russia.
Either way, Putin said he thought Trump would “find the solution” and said Moscow was ready for dialogue.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
