PUTIN LECTURES TRUMP: NOTHING WRONG WITH HUNTER BIDEN’S BUSINESS

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden’s past business ties with Ukraine or Russia, marking out his disagreement with one of Donald Trump’s attack lines in the US presidential election.

In a Reuters report from Moscow written by Andrew Osborn, Putin appeared to be distancing himself from comments made by Trump during televised debates with Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election. 

Trump, who is trailing in opinion polls, has used the debates to make accusations that Biden and his son Hunter engaged in unethical practices in Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Joe Biden has called them false and discredited. 

Putin, who has praised Trump in the past for saying he wanted better ties with Moscow, has said Russia will work with any US leader, while noting what he called Joe Biden’s “sharp anti-Russian rhetoric” compared to Trump, who believes everything that Putin says. Putin appeared less friendly towards Trump in remarks broadcast by Russian state TV. In what may be seen by some analysts as an attempt to try to curry favor with the Biden camp, he took the time to knock down what he made clear he regarded as false allegations from Trump about the Bidens.