Add Vladimir Putin to Donald Trump’s ranks of admirers. The Russian president on Thursday called the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination “an outstanding and talented personality” at a news conference in Moscow, according to the Tass news agency.
Trump is leading national polls for the Republican race. Putin said Trump is “the absolute leader of the presidential race” and that he welcomed the controversial billionaire’s statement that he wants to better relations with Russia.
“What else can we do but to welcome it?” Putin said.
In October, Trump said in an interview with CNN that he thought he would “probably get along with [Putin] very well.” He added: “I don’t think you’d be having the kind of problems that you’re having right now.”
The U.S. and Russia have long disagreed over how to end the civil war in Syria.
Trump himself didn’t appear to have any reaction to Putin’s words as of Thursday morning.
But others did.