Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly praised and defended Donald Trump, both before the U.S. presidential election and after, so perhaps it wasn’t too surprising to hear the Russian autocrat sing the president-elect’s praises once more ahead of his ally’s Inauguration Day.
Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused the Obama administration of trying to “undermine the legitimacy” of President-elect Donald Trump by spreading “fake” information.The Russian president said America was “seeing a continuing heated political struggle, even though the elections are finished.”Addressing reporters at a news conference in Moscow, Putin said the recent inclusion of allegations against Trump in an intelligence briefing “indicates a significant level of degradation [among] political elites in the West.”
Commenting specifically on the allegations raised by the unverified dossier*, Putin said Trump is “someone who has been involved with beauty contests for many years and has met the most beautiful women in the world. I find it hard to believe that he rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals — although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world.”It’s hard not to notice that the two men appear to be cut from the same cloth.And just as Trump repeated Putin-esque talking points in an interview over the weekend, Putin echoed Trump’s talking points today, touting the Republican’s “conclusive victory,” condemning “fake” allegations, and celebrating Trump’s commitment towards “improving Russian-American relationships.”
What Putin may not fully appreciate, however, is how little this helps Trump’s case. If the allegation is that two men are overly cozy, and the incoming American president is effectively “Putin’s poodle,” overly eager to make his benefactor happy, the Russian leader isn’t exactly doing Trump a favor by praising and defending him.In other words, the foreign adversary who’s responsible for raising questions about Trump’s legitimacy is going out of his way to defend Trump’s legitimacy.It’s only natural to wonder why the Russian president is in a defensive mood.* For the record, the claims in the dossier are unverified by both media and the U.S. Intelligence community, and Trump has vehemently denied the allegations.
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."