Putin Mocks 'Rotten' US System For Prosecution Of Donald Trump

It was quite obvious this moment was coming... Russian President Vladimir Putin has mercilessly mocked the US political system for the Biden admin's prosecution of Donald Trump. This is also after US conservative pundits have long decried these efforts as more befitting a "banana republic". 

Putin presented the whole drawn out saga as proof of Washington corruption, which further exposes American "rottenness" - in comments given before the Eastern Economic Forum gathering in Russia’s Pacific Coast city of Vladivostok, where the Russian leader is later expected to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

"As for the prosecution of Trump, for us what is happening in today’s conditions, in my opinion, is good because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy," Putin told the audience.

"Everything that is happening with Trump is the persecution of a political rival for political reasons. That’s what it is. And this is being done in front of the public of the United States and the whole world," he added. Of course, many of those leaders claiming to represent the "international community" probably welcome efforts at going after Trump legally and politically. 

In July, Trump famously said in an interview while on the campaign trail that he would diplomatically resolve the Ukraine crisis within 24 hours of re-entering the White House. Putin commented on those remarks in the Tuesday speech as follows:

"We hear that Mr. Trump says that he will solve pressing problems in a few days, including the Ukrainian crisis. Well, this cannot but bring happiness. This is good," Putin said.

However, the Russian leader said his country’s poor relations with the United States were unlikely to change significantly regardless of who becomes president.

He strongly suggested that even if former president Trump does take the White House again, little is likely to change in any drastic way. But we should note that by then a battered Ukraine might begin to see its prospects for liberating territory very differently, considering how badly the counteroffensive has gone.

At one point in the talk, Putin used colorful language to explain that Trump "was accused of having a special relation with Russia, which is total nonsense and bullshit." And that's when he presented... "But he was the president who introduced the most sanctions against Russia."

Putin continued, "What to expect from the future, no matter who the president is, it’s hard for us to say, but it’s unlikely that anything will change radically," Putin said. After years of attempts at isolating Russia and the 'interference' in US elections narrative stoked by the Biden people, Putin pointed out that it "will be very difficult for them [a future potential Trump administration] to somehow turn this whole ship" in the other direction.

Elsewhere in the same speech Putin repeated a familiar theme of the Kremlin's, charging that the West is using the global economy as an instrument of coercion, blackmail, and punishment...

"They prioritize not temporary political events, but the promotion of their own projects... that bring direct and long-term benefits to their populations," Putin said, adding that this leads to the emergence of a new international model "shaped not by Western standards [and] catering to the selected ‘golden billion,’ but all of humanity... and the developing multipolar world."

All of this is also coming out of a G20 summit in India last week - something which Putin skipped - and yet it's being hailed by the Kremlin as a 'success' for Moscow's foreign policy given there was no condemnation of Russia. Instead, large BRICS countries like India and China blocked efforts by the West to issue a muscular condemnation of the Ukraine invasion.