Seems like everyone wants to throw their two cents at Hillary Clinton’s anticipated presidential bid 2016 speculation—and Russian President Vladimir Putin is no exception.
Putin on Wednesday sarcastically griped about the former secretary of state’s gender and skill as a diplomat, saying “it’s better not to argue with women.” Referring to Clinton’s remarks that Putin was trying to redraw Europe’s boundaries just as Adolf Hitler had decades prior, he added: “But Mrs. Clinton has never been too graceful in her statements.”
According to AFP, Putin told a French television station that he’d met with Clinton while she was secretary of state “and had cordial conversations at various international events. I think even in this case we could reach an agreement.”
The conflict in Ukraine, however, has muddled the relationship. Since Russia annexed Ukraine’s peninsular region, Crimea, and began amassing troops at the eastern border, Western relations with Russia have soured.
Putin said he felt Clinton’s remarks aligning him to Hitler were far too extreme.
“When people push boundaries too far, it’s not because they are strong but because they are weak,” Putin said. “But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman.” He continued, responding to the reporters who asked if Putin would retaliate for the remark: “Someday I will indulge myself and we will laugh together at some good joke,” he said. Putin continued on in his derision of Clinton: “When I hear such extreme statements, to me it only means that they don’t have any valid arguments,” he said. Clinton is out next week with her memoir and heading into what many anticipate will be a competitive White House bid in 2016—she’s already polling miles ahead of her Democratic challengers and with a competitive edge against most of the Republican field, too.
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