Putin: Kamala Harris laughs ‘infectiously,’ we want her to win

A smirking Vladimir Putin said Thursday he wants Democratic candidate Kamala Harris to win the U.S. election this year.
“First of all, [Joe] Biden recommended all his supporters to support Ms. Harris. We previously said Biden was our preferred candidate. So now we will do as he said, we will support her,” the Russian president said during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.
“Second, she laughs so expressively and infectiously. That means that she is doing well. Trump has imposed more sanctions on Russia than any president has imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, then perhaps she will refrain from doing this kind of thing,” Putin joked.
It is not the first time Putin has claimed he’s rooting for the Democrats.
In February this year, the Kremlin boss said that Biden is preferable for Russia, as he is more experienced and predictable than former Republican President Donald Trump, who is again vying for the White House.
Putin declared his support for Harris right as new allegations of Russian meddling in the American election shook the U.S., exposing Moscow’s state media over spreading disinformation ahead of the crucial November vote.
Trump, for his part, has consistently refused to criticize Putin, going back to his first presidential run, which began in 2015 and led to years of ultimately anticlimactic investigations into covert links to Russia.
Vladyslav Faraponov, head of the board at Ukraine’s Institute of American Studies, told POLITICO: “Of course, it would be absurd to suggest that Kamala Harris, or any other high-ranking official in the Biden administration, would serve Putin or Russia’s interests better than Donald Trump. This seems to be yet another public cover for Russia’s ongoing attempts to influence U.S. elections.
“With early voting beginning in late September, Putin clearly understands the timing,” Faraponov added.