In a TV interview published on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin indirectly endorsed Donald Trump’s claim that his 2020 presidential election loss was “stolen”from him.
Putin made the comment in response to a question about Trump’s recent statements on Russia and US-Russia relations. He said, “I can’t disagree with him if he thinks that if he had been president and they hadn’t stolen the victory from him in 2020, the crisis in Ukraine might not have broken out in 2022.”
The statement was made in the context of Putin’s response to a question about Trump’s recent comments on Russia and US-Russia relations.
At the same time, the Russian president also reminded the audience that Trump introduced numerous sanctions during his first term, which were continued and expanded by his successor, Joe Biden. According to Putin, the US itself had been harmed by some of these measures.
Putin reiterated his willingness to engage in talks with the US president, citing issues such as energy security and oil prices as potential topics of discussion. He noted, however, that the decision to hold talks lies with the White House.
In 2023, Trump told American radio moderator Hugh Hewitt that the Ukraine conflict would have never begun if the 2020 US presidential election had not been “manipulated”and if he had not been replaced by Joe Biden in the Oval Office. Trump has never acknowledged losing the 2020 election, despite the courts finding no evidence of widespread election fraud.