Putin quips he prefers Harris to Trump now that Joe Biden is out

To laughter from some in his audience, a smiling President Vladimir Putin said he has made his choice in the U.S. presidential election.

Having previously favored a second term for Joe Biden, Putin said Russia now wants U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to win in November because she’d been endorsed by the incumbent Democrat.

“Biden was our favorite but he dropped out of the race,” Putin said in response to a question at the Eastern Economic Forum’s plenary session in Russia’s Vladivostok on Thursday. “But he recommended that all of his supporters support Harris, so we will as well.”

Putin’s comments effectively amounted to presidential trolling a day after the Biden administration announced that Russia—backed entities had pursued a yearslong operation to meddle in the U.S. election and broadly boost the Kremlin’s interests. The FBI cited internal planning documents from one of the entities saying it was in Russia’s interest to ensure that Donald Trump or another Republican candidate won the White House.

But they also reflect the Kremlin’s view that, with relations at their lowest in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there’s little prospect for improvement whoever wins the U.S. presidency. Putin said Biden was “predictable” when he told state television in February that he’d prefer him over Trump in the White House.

On Thursday, Putin said Trump had imposed “so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia” during his first presidency. Harris “laughs so contagiously and expressively, it shows she’s doing well” and in that case she may refrain from similar steps, Putin said.

Still, it’s for the American people to decide who’ll be president and Russia will respect their choice, he said.

Putin has a history of weighing in on U.S. presidential contests. Months after Trump first announced in 2015 that he would run for the presidency, the Russian leader praised him as “a very colorful and talented” figure.

Russian lawmakers burst into applause when Trump’s shock victory over Hillary Clinton was announced in 2016. U.S. officials blamed Russia for a hacking campaign targeting Clinton’s team in the months before the vote, something the Kremlin denied.

While the U.S. escalated sanctions on Russia and expelled diplomats during Trump’s term, he was loathe to criticize Putin personally. At their 2018 summit in Helsinki, Trump stunned his own officials by hailing Putin’s offer to help the U.S. investigate allegations of Russian election meddling as an “incredible” gesture.

A U.S. intelligence community assessment concluded with a high degree of confidence that Putin and the Russian government also authorized and directed an effort to influence the 2020 election. Biden retaliated with sanctions and expulsions of Russian diplomats shortly after taking office.

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(With assistance from Gina Turner.)