President Putin calls legal proceedings against Trump a ‘politically motivated persecution that shows the rottenness of the American system’

Russian president, Vladimir Putin has slammed legal proceedings against former US president Donald Trump as ‘politically motivated persecution’ that ‘shows the rottenness of the American system’.

Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing a series of criminal cases in which he is charged, as well as trying to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat by Joe Biden.

During an economic forum in the Far East, Putin spoke out in defense of the former president.

‘As for the persecution of Trump, for us, in the current environment, it’s good because it shows the rottenness of the American system.’

‘It is a politically motivated persecution of one’s competitor,’ he said, in an apparent swipe at the Democrats and President Biden, adding: ‘And this shows who we are fighting… As they said in Soviet times: “The bestial face of American capitalism.”‘

Putin also accused Washington of stoking anti-Russian feelings among ordinary Americans.

‘Current authorities have directed American society in an anti-Russian spirit,’ the Russian leader said.

‘They’ve done it and now somehow turning this ship in the other direction will be very difficult