Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a three-hour marathon with media from 16 countries representing 80% of the entire global news flow, according to Andrei Kondrashov, TASS’s Director General, who mediated the event. This was the eighth annual meeting of international media with Putin, and, as Kondrashov noted, over the years, some media have become “unfriendly” toward Russia. But, “this will probably make it even more interesting.” Kondrashov also remarked that perhaps “this will be the first meeting amid such international tensions. It looks like the world has lost its mind, that someone is intentionally pushing it toward a catastrophe.” The hope, he said, according to the Kremlin website, which included the video and the transcript, is that by the end of the meeting, “we will be at least a step closer to understanding how to reduce the degree of this tension, the degree of double standards, of this ill understanding and simply hostility.”
The Russian President answered each question with great thoroughness and thoughtfulness, drawing a sharp contrast with pathetic Western leaders, and especially U.S. President Joe Biden, whose thinking processes are impaired.
One topic of obvious interest was Russia’s relations with the U.S., and whether anything would change if Trump were to win the November elections. Putin said he didn’t think “there will be any serious changes” as a result of the U.S. electoral outcome. Current developments in the U.S. are “political infighting,” he said, “and they are burning themselves out, their state and their political system…. They are also incinerating their pseudo-leadership in the field of democracy. It is clear to everyone worldwide that the persecution of Trump, especially his prosecution on charges based on events that took place years ago without any direct evidence, is a blatant use of the judicial system for political infighting,” he added. Accusations against Trump are “silly … complete nonsense and drivel,” because they are just an element of “political infighting between Democrats and Republicans.”
