The Russian president raised the issue of negotiations on ending the Ukraine war in his speech at an economic forum.
But the focus was largely on his surprising statement about Kamala Harris.
Her laughter is so infectious, it shows that she's doing well, Putin said about the Democratic presidential candidate.
(Outgoing President Joe) Biden recommended supporting Harris, and we will do so too, Putin said according to news agencies.
The words did not fall on fertile ground in Washington.
The only ones who should decide who becomes the next US president are the American people, says John Kirby, spokesperson for the US National Security Council, and continues:
We would be grateful if Mr. Putin would first stop talking about our election and secondly stop interfering in it.
Unclear Intentions
During Donald Trump's previous presidential term, 2017-2021, the Republican developed good relations with the authoritarian Putin. Despite Russia's increasingly clear departure from democracy, the US ex-president has also often expressed admiration for the Russian leader. But now Putin claims that Harris would be better.
She might refrain from sanctions, Putin said in his speech.
What he meant is unclear. With Biden as president and Harris as vice president, Russia has been subject to increasingly harsh sanctions from the US and the rest of the Western world in recent years, as punishment for the Ukraine war.
Putin has, however, occasionally reasoned that politicians like Biden are more predictable than the moody Trump.
Making Demands
In the part of the speech where Putin touched on possible talks about the Ukraine war, he referred to previous conditions that Ukraine had rejected, and opened up for negotiations.
But not based on any frivolous demands, but based on the documents that there was agreement on and which actually began in Istanbul.
Under Turkish mediation in the spring of 2022, Russia made far-reaching demands that Ukraine - under heavy military pressure - did not immediately reject.
But as Russia's invasion, which began in February that year, did not prove as successful as Putin had hoped, the negotiations ran aground.
