Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with NBC News forward of his assembly with U.S. President Joe Biden subsequent week, stated U.S.-Russia relations are at their lowest level in years.
Putin and Biden will meet in Geneva on Wednesday.
The White House has stated Biden will convey up ransomware assaults emanating from Russia, Moscow’s aggression in opposition to Ukraine, the jailing of dissidents and different points which have irritated the relationship.
“We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years,” Putin stated, in accordance with an NBC translation of excerpts of an interview broadcast on Friday.
Putin praised former President Donald Trump as “an extraordinary individual, talented individual,” and stated Biden, as a profession politician, was “radically different” from Trump.
Asked about Biden calling him a killer in an interview in March, Putin stated he had heard dozens of such accusations.
“This is not something I worry about in the least,” Putin stated.
Biden, in the beginning of an eight-day go to to Europe this week, stated: “We’re not seeking conflict with Russia.”
“We want a stable and predictable relationship but I’ve been clear: The United States will respond in a robust and meaningful way if the Russian government engages in harmful activities.”
Putin was requested about a number of Russian dissidents whose deaths have been blamed on Moscow, together with ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned in 2006.
Putin dismissed the query as “verbal indigestion.“
He stated a few of these chargeable for the deaths are in jail.
On the problem of current ransomware assaults that the United States has traced to Russia, Putin denied any data of the hackings and known as on Biden to succeed in an settlement with him on our on-line world, NBC News stated.
Putin additionally dismissed a report within the Washington Post this week that Russia was making ready to provide Iran with a sophisticated satellite tv for pc that will allow it to trace potential army targets throughout the Middle East.
“It’s just fake news. At the very least, I don’t know anything about this kind of thing,” Putin stated, in accordance with NBC News. “It’s just nonsense garbage.”