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Putin has been
repeatedly thrust into the campaign for the Nov. 8 U.S.
election. Trump has praised him as a stronger leader than U.S.
President Barack Obama, drawing criticism from Clinton and some
Republicans that he is too cozy with the Russian president.
Trump has also refused to concede that Russia was behind the
hacking of Democratic Party emails.
During Wednesday's presidential debate, Trump said he did not
know Putin but would likely get along better with the Russian
leader than Clinton, a former secretary of state.
“He said nice things about me,” Trump said. “He has no respect
for her, he has no respect for our president and I’ll tell you
what, we’re in very serious trouble.”
Clinton responded: ”Well that's because he'd rather have a
puppet as president of the United States.”
"No, you're the puppet," Trump retorted, adding Clinton disliked
Putin because he "has outsmarted her at every step of the way."
Earlier this week, Trump suggested that if elected, his first
meeting with a foreign leader would be with Putin.
U.S.-Russian relations have deteriorated in recent years over
Moscow's intervention in the Syrian conflict, its annexation of
the Crimean region from Ukraine and concerns about cyber
attacks.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who oversees 17
U.S. intelligence agencies, has suggested that recent computer
hacks targeting the Democratic Party were perpetrated by
Russians, and predicted that cyber attacks would be a pressing
challenge for the next president.
Putin said on Sunday that Russia did not seek confrontation with
the United States and was not trying to influence the U.S.
election.
(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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