Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that he backs Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris for president, matching previous sentiment that he has expressed about the Democrat Party.

Putin made the remarks on Thursday while attending the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia.

“We had Biden as a favorite, but he was dropped from the race. He recommended that all his supporters should back Harris, so we will, too,” Putin said. “She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that everything is fine with her.”

Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Rebekah Koffler said that Putin prefers that Harris wins because “Putin believes that he can manipulate Harris easily, unlike Trump, whom the Russians profiled as unpredictable and difficult to read.”

The Trump campaign responded to the endorsement by posting a graphic on social media touting Putin’s backing of Harris.

https://t.co/V8WcQPnIQj pic.twitter.com/zbvEPpgdSs

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 5, 2024

“In fact, President Putin would much rather see Comrade Kamala Harris in Office, as he strongly said just this morning,” Trump added in his own post on Truth Social.

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Koffler said that Putin aimed to “unbalance” Harris by making statements “mocking, teasing, and pleasing” her.

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JUST IN: Vladimir Putin says he supports Kamala Harris for president, says he finds her laugh “fascinating.”

The comments come after the DOJ accused Russia of funding Tenet who then paid conservative influencers for videos.

At the moment, it’s unclear what exactly Russia’s goal… pic.twitter.com/ciXyZ4MCyU

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 5, 2024

Back in 2020, Putin acknowledged the Democrat Party is much more closely aligned to Russia, specifically the former Soviet Union than the Republican Party is.

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“First, the Democratic Party is traditionally closer to the so-called liberal values, closer to Social Democratic ideas, if compared to Europe,” he said. “And it was from the Social Democratic environment that the Communist Party evolved.”

“After all, I was a member of the Soviet Communist Party for nearly 20 years, or more precisely 18 years. I was a rank-and-file member, but it can be said that I believed in the party’s ideas,” Putin said. “I still like many of these left-wing values. … Yes, they are difficult to implement, but they are very attractive, nevertheless. In other words, this can be seen as an ideological basis for developing contacts with the Democratic representative.”

Political commentator Tim Pool told Ben Shapiro on Friday that he was unaware that the founders of a media company that licensed one of his talk shows were being paid by Russians, and was blindsided by the allegations from the Department of Justice earlier this week.

In his first interview since the DOJ indictment, Pool, the host of the popular Timcast show, reiterated on “The Ben Shapiro Show” that he had very limited contact with Tenet Media, which is accused by federal prosecutors of secretly taking money from Russians and licensed one of his spin-off shows called the “Culture War” podcast. He also explained that Tenet, which was founded by conservative commentator Lauren Chen, didn’t even have exclusive rights to his show, much less editorial input on it.

“That’s the crazy thing, it’s not even an exclusive show, it’s not exclusive, we published it other places, we own all the rights for it,” Pool said. “And so now we get entrenched in whatever this is, and I’m just like, nah, I don’t have anything to do with this. I don’t know what it is Lauren Chen was doing. I’m quite perturbed by the allegations. I don’t know what will turn out to be true, but I’m pissed.”

EXCLUSIVE: @Timcast first interview about the DOJ/Tenet Media indictment and his own Kamala Harris lawsuit pic.twitter.com/wVkPj7etKw

— The Ben Shapiro Show (@BenShapiroShow) September 6, 2024

Pool said that despite clips circulating on social media this week that show him harshly criticizing Ukraine, he has always hated Russia.

“Russia sucks. I’m not a fan of Russia,” Pool said. “I think Vladimir Putin is a dictator who’s used unethical and dictatorial means to maintain power for decades. And I’ve long said that.”

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Pool said his comments criticizing Ukraine are rooted in his anger that the United States is spending resources abroad when it should be spending them on domestic problems.

Chen, a Canadian-born YouTuber and former RT employee, and her husband, Liam Donovan, are not named but referenced in the indictment as founders of Tenet Media.

The Russian defendants allegedly worked with Chen and Donovan to “mask” the “true source of funding” for the company, which the indictment revealed to be RT — a Russian state broadcaster.

Chen and Donovan were accused of “falsely portraying” to commentators such as Pool that their company was sponsored by a private investor named “Eduard Grigoriann” — a persona that turned out to be fake.

The Blaze has cut ties with Chen over the Russia allegations. Pool says he’s been contacted by the FBI, which is treating him as a victim of the scheme.