Putin describes Trump as a straightforward and frank man

ST. PETERSBURG, June 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described his US counterpart Donald Trump as a frank and sincere person with whom he is determined to establish a normal business and personal relationship. Putin also said Russia was prepared to wait for the anti-Russian hysteria to subside, because it creates an adverse environment for addressing the tasks facing both countries.

"As far as our rumored friendship with Trump goes, how can one be on friendly terms with a person they have not met yet? I believe that Mr. Trump is unable to call me a friend of his either. We haven’t shaken hands with him yet. We haven’t met just once!" Putin said at a meeting with the heads of the world’s leading news agencies on Thursday.

Asked about his attitude to Trump, Putin said that he had a liking to such type of personalities in general.

"He is a straightforward and frank man. He does not belong with the traditional type of politicians. He had never been in big politics before," the Russian leader said, adding this looked like a great advantage to him in a sense.

"He takes a fresh look at things, regardless of whether some people may like this or not. Very often this yields certain benefits," Putin said.

The Russain president recalled that during his presidential election campaign Trump declared his readiness to take steps for the sake of normalization of Russian-US relations and to propel them to a level "meeting the interests of both countries."

"Naturally, we are prepared for such a dialogue with the president of the United States," Putin said. He added he had no idea yet what future Moscow-Washington relations would look like in practice, because "internal political struggle underway in the United States does not allow for building relations on many tracks."

Asked what advice he might share with the US president as to how to counter bureaucracy, Putin said that "a man like Trump does not need advice, especially when it comes to internal political matters."

"Generally speaking, it is always counterproductive to try to lecture counterparts," Putin said, adding that in that case there is always a chance to blame failure on somebody else.

Anti-Russian hysteria 

Putin said he hoped to have a normal business and personal relationship with Trump, just as with all other foreign counterparts.

"I would like to establish a constructive dialogue on the basis of national interests of our countries and with due regard for those interests. I believe it is possible to achieve that jointly with the current president [of the United States]. What will happen in reality I do not know," Putin said.

Asked if the Russophobic hysteria in the United States could influence inter-state relations, Putin said it could and was already influencing them.

"I believe that this is one of the aims pursued by those who orchestrate this [anti-Russian] campaign. They wish to exert influence and they manage to do that somehow. They shape the public opinion in a certain way. They create a climate where it is impossible to tackle any common tasks, incidentally, those in the struggle with terrorism," Putin said.

He believes it might be possible to work more actively along some tracks to fight against terrorism, but the overall climate as it is, it is not very convenient to talk to each other on this subject.

Putin hopes that this campaign will end sooner or later, the more so, since it is aimed not so much against Russia as against the current president "to leave no chance for him to work normally."

"It should come to an end sooner or later. We are patient people. We’ll wait," he concluded.