Ukrainian crisis: Donald Trump hails the “genius” of Vladimir Putin
In a podcast, Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin a “genius” for recognizing the independence of the separatist Ukrainian regions.
Throughout his tenure, Donald Trump denounced a "witch hunt" over suspicions of Russian interference that would have given him an advantage during the 2016 presidential campaign, going so far as to publicly oppose the findings of US intelligence agencies. intelligence to take the side of Vladimir Putin. Now far from the White House, the former American president seems to retain a certain admiration for the Russian president: “Yesterday I saw a TV screen and I said: “It’s genius”. Putin declares a large part of Ukraine independent. Oh, this is wonderful,” he said during the podcast recorded at Mar-a-Lago with the two conservative hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. The billionaire continued his praise of the strategy of Vladimir Putin, "a guy who is very clever" whom he knows "very, very well", who recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Lugansk and Donetsk: "I said: "How brilliant". He will go there and keep the peace there… We could use that on our southern border, ”he imagined.
Donald Trump took advantage of this subject to, once again, criticize Joe Biden: "What happened is that there was a rigged election and what went wrong is a candidate who should not be there and a man who has no idea what he is doing,” he replied, when asked about the fact that the White House on Wednesday called the incursion of Russian troops into these disputed lands an “invasion”. . “That would never have happened with us. If I had been in charge, unimaginable. It would never have happened. But there is a guy who says: "I will declare a large part of Ukraine independent", and he used the word "independent" and "we will go there and we will restore peace". You have to admit, that's pretty clever. And you know what Biden's response was? There was no response. He didn't have one. It's sad. Very sad."
He insisted on his closeness to the Russian president: “I knew Putin very well. I got along very well with him. He liked me. I liked him. Well, I mean, he's a badass, he's got a lot of charm and pride. But the way he loves his country, you know? He loves his country. He acts a little differently now, I think.” And Donald Trump then assured that he had calmed the intentions of Russian invasions during his presidency, while tackling his predecessor Barack Obama and his successor Joe Biden: “I think he sees the opportunity. I knew he always wanted Ukraine. I was telling him about it. I was like, "You can't do that." But I could see he wanted her. I asked him the question. We used to talk about it at length.”
Charged with 'abuse of power' after appeal to Zelensky
If he took advantage of the Ukrainian subject for a long time to criticize his successor, Donald Trump failed to recall that he owed his first indictment by the House of Representatives to suspicions of blackmail to American aid granted to Ukraine. In July 2019, he had discussed with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, elected a few months earlier, the opening of an investigation in Ukraine from which he hoped to draw compromising elements against Hunter Biden, the son of the current American president. The tone of the billionaire, who had suspended American financial aid, had worried Alexander Vindman, lieutenant-colonel of the American army, then director of European Affairs at the National Security Council, who had launched the alert internally. “I was worried about the repercussions on the American support of the American government for Ukraine,” he told the representatives, adding that he “felt it was not appropriate” from Donald Trump “ to require a foreign government to investigate an American citizen".
Donald Trump had, for his part, sworn that the call to his Ukrainian counterpart was "perfect" despite suspicions of setting up a parallel diplomacy with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose two former collaborators were indicted for breach of campaign laws. He had been impeached by the House of Representatives for “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress”, then acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate.
