Are we seeing a close friendship building between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump?
Just two months ago, Trump said that if he became president, his relationship with Putin would be so strong that the Russian leader would gladly extradite NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
"If I were president, Putin would give him over," Trump told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "I would get along with Putin. I've dealt with Russia."
That comment came just weeks after Trump praised Putin by way of criticizing Obama.
"I will tell you that I think in terms of leadership, he's getting an 'A,'" Trump said of Putin, "and our president is not doing so well."
It continued when Donald Trump, the Republican US presidential front-runner, was apparently "honored" that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers the real-estate magnate a "flamboyant" and "very talented" man.
Trump said that "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond".
He continued: "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."
During a separate press conference earlier in the day, Putin raised eyebrows when he reportedly said that he would welcome stronger relations under a Trump administration.
"He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that. ... He is an absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today," Putin told reporters, according to Reuters. "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."
