Putin says he 'supports' Harris in US presidential election

Photo: Vyacheslav Prokofyev Agence FRance-Presse Russian leader Vladimir Putin regularly comments, and in a willingly mocking tone, on American politics and society.

Agence France-Presse in Moscow

Published yesterday at 14:20 Updated yesterday at 22:49

• United States

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday assured, not without sarcasm, that he “supports” Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for the American presidential election in November, the day after accusations of electoral interference made by Washington and rejected by Moscow.

The White House responded by ordering Vladimir Putin to “stop interfering” in this presidential election, while Moscow has already been accused of interference in previous elections in the United States and Europe.

The American authorities took measures on Wednesday, including criminal prosecutions and sanctions, for these attempts to “influence” the outcome of the presidential election on November 5, which pits Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump.

American intelligence had already concluded that there was Russian interference in the presidential elections in 2016 and 2020 to favor Republican candidate Donald Trump, which the person concerned categorically denies and which Russian diplomacy has denied.

Without responding directly to These accusations, Vladimir Putin said Thursday that US President Joe Biden had “recommended his voters to support Mrs Harris, so we will support her too,” at an economic forum in Vladivostok.

“Secondly, she has such an expressive and contagious laugh that it shows that she is doing well,” he added with a smile. Kamala Harris' laughter is often ridiculed by American conservatives, led by Donald Trump.

The Russian president estimated that Republican candidate Donald Trump, who held the White House from 2017 to 2021, had imposed “more sanctions on Russia than any president” before him, and that Kamala Harris “might refrain from doing this kind of thing.”

“But ultimately, the choice is up to the American people,” added Vladimir Putin.

Read also

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“Predictable”

“The only people who should determine who the next president of the United States is going to be are the Americans, and we would greatly appreciate it if Mr. Putin, first, would stop talking about our election and, second, would stop meddling in it,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters journalists.

The Russian leader regularly comments, and in a willingly mocking tone, on American politics and society.

In February, he judged that Joe Biden, then expected to become the Democratic candidate but who has since withdrawn from the race, was more “predictable” and “experienced” than Donald Trump.

Here again, these statements had raised a certain skepticism, the American businessman being more likely to reduce aid to Ukraine than Joe Biden.

Mr. Putin is in fact suspected of wanting to confuse Russia's real intentions by feigning support for the Democrats.

Donald Trump has in the past expressed his admiration for the Russian president and has repeatedly claimed that he would resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began in February 2022, “in 24 hours.”

In recent months, he has been very critical of the billions of dollars spent by the United States to support kyiv in the face of Moscow's offensive.

Kamala Harris, on the other hand, promised at the end of August that she would stand “firmly by Ukraine.”

RT channel targeted

On Wednesday, the American authorities took a series of measures, notably against executives of the Russian media outlet RT, responding according to them to attempts to interfere in the November elections that they attribute to Moscow.

Vladimir Putin was “aware” of these electoral interference operations, the White House claimed.

The spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, judged on Thursday that the measures taken against RT executives were part of an “information campaign […] prepared for a long time date”.

She assured that Moscow was preparing a response to these new sanctions that would “make everyone shudder,” in an interview with the state news agency Ria Novosti.

The American authorities have not clearly indicated which camp, Democrat or Republican, would have benefited from these supposed interferences in the 2024 campaign.

Icy relations

These announcements come at a time when relations between Russia and the United States are icy, and have only worsened since the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.

The broadcasting of RT, launched in 2005, has been largely restricted or banned by Western countries, which accuse him of trying to destabilize their democracies by spreading false information.

RT has derided the latest American accusations, calling them “the return of the hackneyed clichés of 2016.”

Relations with Russia have become a point of partisan division in the United States, a development unthinkable decades ago when the Soviet Union was seen as the primary threat by most Americans.