US election 2024: Putin says he prefers Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the White House

Ahead of the US election this November, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a preference for a Joe Biden presidency over Donald Trump.

Putin described Biden as the more experienced and predictable candidate, a statement likely to provoke interest.

Before Trump’s initial presidential campaign in 2016, Putin had lauded him as “outstanding and talented.”

Biden has long been a vocal critic of Putin, labelling him a “killer” well before the invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking to Russian TV in an on-camera interview on Wednesday, Putin said Biden’s leadership would be better for Russia because he was a “more experienced person, he is predictable, he is a politician of the old formation”.

He dismissed questions about Biden’s age and mental fitness, and said when they had last met in 2021, he had not noticed anything peculiar.

“Even then [three years ago] people were saying that he was incompetent, but I did not see anything of this sort,” he said.

“Yes, he kept looking at his papers, but to be honest I kept doing the same. So there was nothing peculiar.”