Vladimir Putin Hopes Joe Biden will Less Impulsive than Trump

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed hope that Joe Biden will be less impulsive than his predecessor, Donald Trump, ahead of his first summit with the new American leader.

In an interview with NBC News, Putin described Biden as a “career man” who spent his life in politics after the “colorful” Trump.

“I am very hopeful that, yes, there are some pros, some cons, but there will be no impulsive move on behalf of the sitting US president,” he said, according to an NBC News translation.

Biden plans to raise a series of American complaints, including alleged interference and piracy in Russian elections, at the summit with Putin on Wednesday in Geneva at the end of the new president’s first overseas trip.

Putin had openly admitted that in the 2016 vote he supported Trump, who had expressed his admiration for the Russian leader and, notoriously, at his first summit seemed to accept his denials of electoral interference.

Biden has said he has no illusions about Putin and has described him as “a murderer” in light of a series of high-profile killings, including that of Kremlim critic Boris Nemtsov.

When asked if he was “a murderer,” Putin said the term was part of a “macho behavior” common in Hollywood.

That speech “is part of the political culture of the United States where it is considered normal. By the way, not here, it is not considered normal here,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsGater staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)