Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump responded to Vladimir Putin's comment, in which the Russian president called Trump "the absolute front-runner," stating that it was a "great honor" to receive praise from a "highly respected" leader like Putin.

"It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond," Trump said at a rally in Columbus, Ohio.

Putin praised Donald Trump on Thursday for wanting deeper ties with Russia and described him as the "absolute front-runner in the presidential race."

"He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that... He is the absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today. He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it," Putin said during his traditional end-of-year Q&A session with journalists.

However, the Russian president noted that he was ready to work with whoever becomes the next US head of state.

While the majority of Democrat and Republican candidates have been scoring points by criticizing Russia, Trump has taken a different tone, saying he wants to work with Moscow if elected.

"I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect," he reiterated on Thursday.

Trump has said in the past that he sees himself getting along with Putin. "I would get along with him," Trump said in September. "I would get along with a lot of the world leaders that this country is not getting along with."

Trump has also expressed strong support for Russia's bombing campaign against terrorist groups in Syria, which started on September 30 following a formal request from Damascus.

"I like that Putin is bombing the hell out of ISIS," Trump said in October. "I'll tell you why. Putin has to get rid of ISIS 'cause Putin does not want ISIS coming into Russia," he added.

http://www.rt.com/news/326378-trump-putin-comment-honor/

about time someone over here recognizes Putins work on Syria...

Oh yeah. Sure The Russian bombs are so much better than the American and British ones.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/russian-airstrikes-force-a-halt-to-aid-in-syria-triggering-a-new-crisis/2015/12/14/cebc4b66-9f87-11e5-9ad2-568d814bbf3b_story.html

i don't believe anything the Washington posts, msnbcs, fox news or any other American media center has to say, they are state run media's for obarry and his cronies to sell their lies...

we all know that the liberals want Assad out, and will lie and do anything they can to get support for it...


i say just leave Assad alone and let the muslim idiots sort out their own problems... The US and Russia are supposedly wanting the same outcome, but yet the US is acting like second graders and whining about what Russia is doing...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/putin-just-made-major-admission-152152553.html

In his annual marathon news conference Thursday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to Russia's intervention in the Syrian civil war as a military "exercise" for Russia's "air forces, air defense," and "intelligence."

"We did not start the war" in Syria, Putin told reporters during his end-of-year news conference from Moscow, according to a translation by the state-sponsored news agency Russia Today.

He added: "We are just conducting separate operations, using our air forces, air defense, intelligence. This is not a serious burden for the budget ... It's hard to imagine a better exercise [for the Russian forces]. So we can train there [in Syria] for a long time without any serious harm to our budget."

Boris Zilberman, a Russia expert at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he thought the statement was an admission of one of Moscow's key intentions for the Russian military intervention in Syria.

"I think he is basically saying that the conflict in Syria is allowing Russia to showcase their air and sea capabilities in a real conflict," Zilberman told Business Insider...............

Putin is a douche canoe.

Why wouldn't Trump suck up to Putin? Where else is he going to go to get another younger version of the current Mrs. Trump when she gets dumped like the previous ones? Trump is stupid and or vain enough to think he can manipulate/screw over Putin and Putin would have him assassinated without a second thought for the right price.

But they are two of a kind; using power and money and ruthless bully tactics to get what they want and then abandoning their debts. Putin is keeping himself in power by keeping his own army from turning on him because it is still one of the biggest employers and if they are out of the country they aren't able to freeze their hineys off like many of the elderly and other unemployed or interrupt the graft and corruption that is keeping Putin in power.

What should scare the heck out of many is the fact that Putin is making no bones about the fact that someone is paying him to "train" his troops in Syria and will have no problem going after any other country that will not knuckle under to him. I don't think he cares if he wins in Syria any more than the previous wars in Afghanistan but as long as there is fighting it makes his oil more valuable and his munitions manufacturing or more likely black market trade thriving.

This should disqualify him from being president by American standard but Trump has redefined politics and moved the goal post.

Humm.. This is fascinating

I think since Putin has been the most (visibly) powerful man on the planet, for awhile now.
* there are articles on this *

And Donald Trump is perhaps the most controversial & talked about.
Because he says what most Americans have been thinking for years.
* articles on this also *

Then yes..it is a great compliment.
And I agree with Trump as far as our working with Russia would be a mutual benefit.
If they RESPECT each other.
Win ..win.

reminds me of when people tried ot put down farrakhan by saying he was like hitler

and he turned it back by being complimented and stating that Hitler had been a GREAT Man


Farrakhan reminds me more and more of the republicans personal Farrakhan,, except not nearly as wise and much more bigoted

26 th Donald Trump thread.

Full Speech: Donald Trump AMAZING Rally in Raleigh North Carolina: http://youtu.be/qm_m1u3RQh8/

Donald Trump’s Greatest Hits: http://youtu.be/fSbz_H-IF_w/

Kindred Souls?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/08/russia-today-western-cynics-lap-up-putins-tv-poison

Yea, the US has been doing that since WW2... we only pick fights that we couldn't lose... (small countries with very little military)... we never picked a fight with Russia or China, countries that could actually hurt us..

Another reason why Putin wants to destroy ISIS is the fact that is a friend of Assad. Syrian government owes a lot of money to Russia and if ISIS continues to exists in Syria and Iraq then there is no way that Assad can repay Russia . Just my opinion. I dunno if i am right ,sorry .

They sure are, the Russian bombs seem to be hitting real targets. But the real news are the three largest enemies of the US, North Korea, Iran and Syria and there just happens to be only three countries in the world without a Rothchild central bank, North Korea, Iran and Cuba. In 2000 there were seven but Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and Libya have all been incorporated into the realm.

Three holdouts to a world currency but I hear Castro needs cash so perhaps only two remaining. Question, is Russia and Chine trying to become the arbitrator of that new fiat paper?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/08/russia-today-western-cynics-lap-up-putins-tv-poison

Vladimir Putin is the world’s corrupt policeman. He finds the seediness in every country and nurtures it. On some occasions, he exploits cynicism and paranoia at once; on others, he banks it for later use. Often he appears to fan corruption for the hell of it because that is all he knows how to do.

The posters appearing on British advertising hoardings promoting his propaganda channel give a notion of the scale of his effort. His underlings have rebranded his Russia Today station “RT” – in the hope that its dumb viewers will not realise that they are watching a channel whose political line follows the Kremlin line with puppyish eagerness.(read on)

yep you Guys,lap up Putin's KoolAid if you think it is sweeter than Obama's own!

you need to have a close look at those Countries you just cited!