Putin calls Trump 'clever' and suggests talks, including over Ukraine

In the interview Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday also echoed U.S. President Donald Trump's claim the conflict in Ukraine could have been prevented had he been in the White House in 2022.

And he also said Moscow is ready for talks with the U.S. on a broad range of issues.

Putin praised Trump as a “clever and pragmatic man” who is focused on U.S. interests.

On Friday Putin had explicitly said Russia was ready for talks on Ukraine, according to Russian media reports.

"We have always said, and I want to emphasise this again, we are ready for these talks on the Ukrainian issue. But there are also issues here that require special attention," Putin had said.

Putin also supported Trump's claim that the US presidency was "stolen" from him.

“I couldn't disagree with him that if he had been president, if they hadn't stolen victory from him in 2020, the crisis that emerged in Ukraine in 2022 could have been avoided."

Putin's statement was his bluntest endorsement yet of Trump's refusal to accept his defeat in the 2020 election.

Trump has said repeatedly he wouldn't have allowed the conflict to start if he had been in office, even though he was president as fighting grew in the east of the country between Kyiv's forces and separatists aligned with Moscow, ahead of Putin sending in tens of thousands of troops in 2022.

On Thursday, Trump told Fox News that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should have made a deal with Putin to avoid the conflict.

Putin emphasised on Friday that he's open to talks but pointed to Zelenskyy's 2022 decision to rule out negotiations with Moscow.

“How is it possible to conduct talks if they are banned?” Putin said. “If the talks start in the existing legal framework, they would be illegitimate and