President Biden is set to meet with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Geneva, and the Russian leader prepped for that sit-down with an NBC News interview on Friday, offering his views on his US rival, as well as on the man who used to be—former President Trump. "Even now, I believe that ... Mr. Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual, otherwise he would not have become US president," Putin told journalist Keir Simmons. "He is a colorful individual. ... He didn't come from the US establishment." As for Biden, Putin called him a "career man" who's "radically different" from Trump. "He has spent virtually his entire adulthood in politics," Putin noted of Biden. "That's a different kind of person, and it is my great hope that, yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements on behalf of the sitting US president."
Putin also addressed Russia-US relations, telling the network the countries' relationship "has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years," per Al Jazeera. As for accusations made by Biden and others that he's a "killer," Putin shrugged them off. "This is not something I worry about in the least," he told Simmons, calling the label a form of "Hollywood macho," per NBC. He added that this "macho" behavior, while "part of US political culture ... is not considered normal here" in Russia, the Guardian reports. Simmons didn't let the killer subject drop, irritating Putin, who then called the line of questioning "verbal indigestion," per NBC. "You've mentioned many individuals who indeed suffered and perished at different points in time for various reasons, at the hands of different individuals," he said. More portions of the interview are set to air Monday on MSNBC, as well as on NBC's Today show and on Nightly News With Lester Holt. (More Vladimir Putin stories.)
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