U.S. President Donald Trump is “a talented person” who “knows very well what his voters expect from him,” according to Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the Russian president referred to Trump as “Donald” several times and said: “Mr. Trump is not a career politician … I do not accept many of his methods when it comes to addressing problems. But do you know what I think? I think that he is a talented person. He knows very well what his voters expect from him.”
Putin also said in the interview this week that liberalism had “become obsolete” and “has outlived its purpose.”
Those comments were viewed as an attack on governments that elect their leaders democratically. Numerous investigations have found that Putin’s government interfered in the 2016 campaign in an attempt to tip the scales toward Trump, and other world leaders have warned that Russia continues to try to interfere in the democratic process.
“Whoever claims liberal democracy is obsolete also claims freedoms are obsolete, the rule of law is obsolete, and that human rights are obsolete,” Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said at a news conference here. “For us in Europe, these are and will remain essential and vibrant values. What I find really obsolete are authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs.”
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · David Nakamura, Seung Min Kim, Damian Paletta · 
{Matzav.com}