Russian President Vladimir Putin has lauded Donald Trump as a “courageous” leader who “cheated death twice,” referring to the former U.S. president’s survival of past assassination attempts and recent threats. Speaking at a televised Kremlin event, Putin claimed Trump is the only American politician who genuinely seeks peace between Russia and Ukraine.
00:00I deeply respect the current American president, he's traveled a very long and difficult path, there were hardships along the way, on his way to the White House, you know that he survived two attempts on his life, he's a very courageous person, that's for sure.
00:21I deeply respect the current American president, he's traveled a very long and difficult path, there were hardships along the way, on his way to the White House, you know that he survived two attempts on his life, he's a very courageous person, that's for sure.
00:43As for what he's doing within the country, within the United States, or when it comes to the Middle East and his efforts there to achieve peace, for example, in the Ukraine crisis, we value that a lot.
01:00And let me say that publicly again, like I said before, President Trump, I believe, sincerely wants to achieve peace in Ukraine.
01:10Just recently, he said it's more difficult than he believed, he had believed before, well that's true and it's to be expected, because it's one thing when you look at something from the outside and it's something different when you actually deal with it, and the same goes for the Middle Eastern matter.
01:32Although, although over there, I think he had much more experience, he was more involved in the Middle East before, but it's difficult there as well, because real life is always difficult, it's more difficult than what you initially believe, but personally I'm always open to any contacts, to any meetings, and I know that President Trump has said on multiple occasions,
02:02that we could meet, but I personally think this is something that we could meet, but I personally think this is something you need to prepare for, because as a result of such a meeting, we need to achieve some kind of new level of partnership, but overall, thanks to President Donald Trump, relations between Russia and the United States are starting finally to get better in some respects.
02:31Of course, of course, of course, we still have issues diplomatically, but the first steps are there, we're moving forward, we have contacts between our major agencies, between the State Department and our foreign ministry, between our special services, which is really important, you know, because it's really critical to be able to fight terrorism, whatever the situation is, whatever the environment is.
03:00And in other agencies too, we have very good prospects in terms of economic development, economic partnership, I know that American businesses are really willing to, they are sending signals that they would like to go back to our market, and we will welcome that, but that requires dialogue.
03:22But overall, like I said, that meeting is quite possible, and we certainly would like to see that.
