Russian President Vladimir Putin took the opportunity to praise “smart and experienced” Donald Trump, but warned the president-elect was “not safe” in a press conference Thursday at a security summit in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan.
Though describing Trump as “clever,” Putin used examples of previous attempts on Trump’s life and his treatment by opponents as reason to be cautious. Notably, Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.
“What struck me the most is not that Donald Trump was faced with uncivilized means—including assassination attempts—more than once,” Putin said, according to a translation from the Associated Press.
The Russian president is himself accused of using murder to remove his political opponents. On his deathbed in 2006, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko claimed that Putin had directly ordered his assassination. Litvinenko died after being poisoned with a cup of tea laced with polonium-210 in a London hotel bar. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin died in 2023 in a mysterious plane crash after leading a mutiny of his forces. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died mysteriously in February while serving a 19-year prison sentence in a corrective colony. Wikipedia even has a page called “suspicious deaths of notable Russians 2022-24″.
“By the way, in my view, even now he’s not safe,” Putin warned Trump. “But he is a clever and cautious man, I should hope he realizes all that.”
The Russian president, 72, said he was appalled at the treatment of the Trump family, including his children, though did not name names. He labeled it “revolting,” and claimed even Russian “bandits” wouldn’t stoop so low, according to Reuters.
“Most of all, I was shocked to see that it was not just he who faced humiliating and unfounded judicial procedures and accusations and so forth,” Putin continued.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that he will end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of his inauguration, though he has declined to share further details.
Putin told reporters that he has faith the president-elect will “come up with a solution” as the war rages on, after going through “such a serious test” to “return to the White House.”
The comments mark a warmer tone for the president-elect than for President Joe Biden, who received a swipe for creating “additional difficulties” for the incoming administration—notably by allowing Ukraine to fire longer-range ATACMS missiles into Russia.
