MOSCOW: President Vla­d­imir Putin in an interview aired on Sunday called US president-elect Donald Tru­mp intelligent and predicted he would quickly grasp his new level of responsibility and act accordingly.

“Since he managed to achieve success in business, that shows he is a clever person,” the Russian strongman said in an interview with NTV television that has already aired in the country’s far east, quoted by TASS news agency.

“If he’s clever, that means he will fully and quite quickly grasp a different level of resp­onsibility.” Putin said that Russia “expe­cts that he will act precisely on this basis.” The Kremlin said last month that the two men agreed, in their first phone call after Trump’s election win in November, on the need to “normalise” Russia-US relations. Putin on Thursday reiterated Mosc­ow’s readiness to work with Trump’s administration once the president-elect takes office in January.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2016