Putin congratulates Trump, praises 'brave' character of U.S. president-elect
Russian leader also said Trump's interest in ending war in Ukraine is worthy of attention
Russian President Vladimir Putin had flattering words to share Thursday about Donald Trump's recent election win and the character of the next U.S. president.
Speaking at an event in Sochi, Russia, Putin offered Trump congratulations from afar for his election victory. He also praised Trump's courage in the face of a July assassination attempt.
"His behaviour at the moment of an attempt on his life left an impression on me. He turned out to be a brave man," Putin said at an international forum following a speech in Sochi. It was his first public comment on the U.S. vote.
"He manifested himself in the very correct way, bravely as a man," he added.
Putin also said that Trump's statements "about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least."
The Kremlin earlier welcomed Trump's claim that he could negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine "in 24 hours," but emphasized that it will wait for concrete policy steps.
Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. Since then, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has been a key ally for Kyiv, providing a flow of weapons and aid to Ukraine and gathering support among Western nations to enact sanctions against Russia.
Trump has been much more critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine and had even praised Putin at the outset of the invasion. His pending return to the White House leaves Ukraine with questions about how its relationship with Washington may change.
"Will he support continued military aid for Ukraine and … what sort of a diplomatic settlement will he try to impose or support?" Richard Haass, the president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, told ABC News during a recent discussion on foreign-policy expectations for Trump's second term in office.
The White House said Thursday that U.S. will keep surging aid to Ukraine ahead of Biden's transfer of power to Trump in January.
Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo — who served as both U.S. secretary of state and the director of the CIA during Trump's first term — predicts that the president-elect's re-entry to the Oval Office will mean changes in how America's adversaries view Washington.
"Vladimir Putin didn't invade Ukraine during President Trump's four years on our watch," Pompeo noted when speaking to Fox News this week.
'I don't know what will happen'
Asked, during a question-and-answer session at the conference in Sochi on Thursday, what he expects from a second Trump administration, Putin said: "I don't know what will happen now. I have no idea."
"For him, this is still his last presidential term. What he will do is his matter," said Putin, 72, who this year began a fifth term that will keep him in power until 2030 and could seek six more years in office after that.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the Kremlin is not ruling out the possibility of contact between Putin and Trump before the inauguration, given that Trump "said he would call Putin before the inauguration."
There has been reporting by U.S. journalist Bob Woodward that suggests the two leaders have talked by telephone on multiple occasions since Trump left office. Trump has refused to say if this is the case.
Kurt Volker, a former senior U.S. diplomat, believes Trump is likely to reach out to Putin soon after taking office, should the conflict in Ukraine continue to that point.
"He's going to make a phone call to Putin as quickly as possible and tell Putin that he needs to stop the war, that the fighting has to stop, there has to be peace," Volker told the Kyiv Independent in a recent interview, noting that will inevitably lead to a discussion of the conditions for that to happen.
But Putin will have demands and Volker said the Russian leader's ultimate interests are "to take all of Ukraine."
The war is now in its 33rd month. Russia currently controls Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, about 80 per cent of the Donbas — a coal and steel zone comprising the Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk regions — and more than 70 per cent of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The war has been costly for Russia's military: NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said Moscow has seen more than 600,000 soldiers killed or wounded since the start of the invasion. Russia has recently looked to North Korea to supply thousands of fresh recruits for its fight against Ukraine.
U.S. 'unfriendly' to Russia: Kremlin
Peskov has emphasized that Moscow views the U.S. as an "unfriendly" country that is directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict. He dismissed arguments that Putin's failure to reach out quickly to Trump could hurt future ties, saying that Moscow's relations with Washington already are at the "lowest point in history," and arguing that it will be up to the new U.S. leadership to change the situation.
The Kremlin's cautious stand reflected its view of the U.S. vote as a choice between two unappealing possibilities. While Trump is known for his admiration of Putin, the Russian leader has repeatedly noted that during Trump's first term, there were "so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia like no other president has ever introduced before him."
Peskov was also asked Thursday about a prior warning from U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic challenger for the presidency, that Putin would eat Trump for lunch. To this, Peksov said: "Putin does not eat people."
Trump's return to power comes after spending four years out of the Oval Office. The 78-year-old is just the second U.S. president to win non-consecutive terms in office. He will also be the first convicted felon to hold the White House.
With files from CBC News and Reuters