Russian President Vladimir Putin raised eyebrows when he expressed his assist for United States Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, flattering the Democratic nominee with some curiously timed remarks.
“Our ‘favorite,’ if you happen to can name it that, was the present president, Mr [Joe] Biden. However he was faraway from the race, and he really useful all his supporters to assist Ms Harris. Effectively, we’ll accomplish that – we’ll assist her,” Putin mentioned on Thursday (Friday AEST) on the Japanese Financial Discussion board in Vladivostok.
“She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it implies that she is doing effectively.”
Putin additionally criticised former president and present Republican nominee Donald Trump for putting “so many restrictions and sanctions in opposition to Russia like no different president has ever launched earlier than him.”
Putin’s feedback come on the heels of sweeping sanctions introduced by the Biden administration to fight a Russian government-backed disinformation effort to affect the 2024 elections and enhance Trump’s candidacy.
And regardless of the Russian chief’s vocal assist of the Democrats, US Deputy Lawyer Normal Lisa Monaco mentioned on Wednesday that three Russian corporations – at Putin’s course – used pretend profiles to advertise false narratives on social media.
Inside paperwork produced by a type of Russian corporations present one of many targets of the propaganda effort was to assist Trump’s candidacy or whoever emerged because the Republican nominee for president, based on an FBI affidavit.
So what’s Putin making an attempt to perform?
If the previous is any information, Putin is solely stirring the pot of US home politics. In December 2015, Putin praised Trump, calling him the front-runner months earlier than the businessman secured the Republican nomination.
“He’s a shiny and gifted particular person with none doubt,” Putin mentioned, calling Trump “an impressive and gifted persona.”
Did Putin know one thing concerning the 2016 US presidential elections that the pollsters did not? No, however the Kremlin chief did little to hide his dislike of Hillary Clinton, then the seemingly Democratic nominee.
And when purloined Democratic Nationwide Committee emails had been leaked simply forward of the Democratic Nationwide Conference, Putin didn’t cover his glee.
Whereas US officers pointed a agency finger of blame at Russia for the hack, Putin denied the Russian state had something to do with it. And in remarks on the identical discussion board in September 2016, he praised the leak as a type of service to the voters, saying, “The essential factor is the content material that was given to the general public.”
That content material being the embarrassing revelation within the leaked emails that Democratic officers gave preferential remedy to Clinton.
In different phrases, the entire DNC hack episode supported the Kremlin’s view that American democracy is a sham: Nothing issues however energy, every part is determined in smoke-filled rooms, and hectoring nations like Russia about adherence to democracy and human rights is hypocritical.
Putin’s view of the American political system makes much more sense once we are reminded of an perception from exiled Russian political journalist Mikhail Zygar, the writer of All of the Kremlin’s Males.
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Zygar famous that Putin beloved Home of Playing cards – the darkly cynical tv sequence about Washington politics – and even really useful it to his ministers.
“That is his American politics textbook,” Zygar mentioned in an interview.
It is also attainable that Putin was merely trolling Harris by winking at a constant insult from Trump about the way in which she laughs.
So if Putin’s tackle US election politics is seen by way of the lens of Home of Playing cards, then, Putin’s assist of Harris is a type of transfer by the present’s central character Frank Underwoood: A sort of endorsement toxic to its recipient.