Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the relationship between his country and the US is at its “lowest point” ahead of his meeting with US President Joe Biden.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Mr Putin said: “We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years.”
The two leaders will meet in the Swiss city of Geneva on 16 June.
Mr Putin described former US president Donald Trump as “an extraordinary indiual, talented indiual, otherwise he would not have become US president”.
He added: “He is a colourful indiual. You may like him or not. And, but he didn’t come from the US establishment, he had not been part of big time politics before, and some like it some don’t like it but that is a fact.”
Mr Putin described Mr Biden, however, as “radically different from Trump because President Biden is a career man”.
“He has spent virtually his entire adulthood in politics.”
“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.”
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Joe Biden met Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 2011 when he was vice president and Mr Putin was Russian prime minister. Pic: AP
When asked about Mr Biden calling him a killer in an interview in March, Mr Putin said he had heard dozens of similar accusations, adding: “This is not something I worry about in the least.”
Mr Biden arrived in the UK late last week and has spent the past few days in Cornwall where he is meeting fellow G7 leaders.
Before the summit, he had said: “We’re not seeking conflict with Russia.”
“We want a stable and predictable relationship… but I’ve been clear: The United States will respond in a robust and meaningful way if the Russian government engages in harmful activities.”
Mr Putin was asked by NBC about several Russian dissidents who have been killed in suspicious circumstances, including ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned in 2006.
Mr Litvinenko’s death is among a number of apparent assassinations that have been blamed on Moscow but Mr Putin dismissed the question as “verbal indigestion”, adding that some of those responsible for such deaths are in prison.
Analysis: Wily Putin knows he won’t get an easy ride from BidenBy Alistair Bunkall, Sky News correspondent
It is extremely rare for the Russian president to give an interview of this length to an international media outlet – the last one was in 2019 to the Financial Times.
That Vladimir Putin chose this moment is no coincidence.
Leaders of the G7 nations are meeting in Cornwall this weekend (Russia was thrown out of the group following the annexation of Crimea), NATO leaders will meet in Brussels on Monday, and then the Russian president will hold face-to-face talks with President Biden in Geneva on Wednesday.
It is a busy seven days of global diplomacy and Mr Putin doesn’t want to remain silent on the sidelines.
The bulk of the 90-minute interview by Keir Simmons of NBC News is yet to air, but from the short clips released Mr Putin has set the tone for the upcoming summit in Switzerland.
Describing US-Russian relations as being at their “lowest point”, the former KGB officer is drawing clear parallels with the Cold War and suggesting things are worse today.
Vladimir Putin had respectful platitudes for the “extraordinary”, “talented” former President Trump, whom he met in Helsinki, but nothing so warm for the “radically different” Joe Biden, whom he rather dismissively described as a “career man”.
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Vladimir Putin (l) and Donald Trump during a G20 summit in 2019
Be that as it may, Mr Biden’s vast experience in politics and international affairs could just prove more rewarding in the long run.
The wily Mr Putin knows he won’t get an easy ride from the current incumbent of The White House. Mr Biden, unlike Mr Trump, has no ego to flatter. The US president is also far better read into the weeds of global security. The meeting on Wednesday should be a far more even contest.
In 1985 Ronald Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva for the first time. It was the start of a working relationship between the two countries that ultimately led to the end of the Cold War.
Thirty six years and many presidents later, the two powers will meet again in the same alpine Swiss city, with another mountain to climb.
See more of the exclusive interview on NBC, MSNBC and NBCNews.com on Monday, as well as here on Sky News.
