The Russian president also praised former U.S. President Donald Trump before meeting with Joe Biden.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, before his June 16 meeting Speaking with US President Joe Biden, US-Russian relations are at a low point.

“Our bilateral relations have deteriorated to their lowest point in recent years,” Putin told NBC News in an interview broadcast on Friday, with an English translation of his speech.

Putin and Biden will meet in Geneva next week, and Biden will Arrivals On Wednesday, he warned Putin during his first visit as President of the United Kingdom that he would send him a clear message during their meeting.

“We are not seeking to conflict with Russia,” Biden said. “We want a stable and predictable relationship… but I have made it clear: If the Russian government engages in harmful activities, the United States will respond in a powerful and meaningful way.”

The leaders’ first face-to-face meeting was held at a time when relations between Washington and Moscow were tense on several issues, including the so-called Russia Network attacks Opposition to the U.S. and detention Alexei Navalny, Critics of the Kremlin.

Like Trump

In an interview with NBC, Putin praised former President Donald Trump as an “extraordinary individual and talented person” and called Biden “completely different.”

Putin said: “Even now, I believe that former US President Trump is an extraordinary person, a talented person, otherwise he would not become the President of the United States.”

“He is a colorful person. You may like him or you may not like him. Moreover, he is not from the American establishment. He has not participated in important political activities before. Some people like him and some don’t like him, but this is fact.”

Putin added that Biden “is completely different from Trump because President Biden is a professional. He spent almost his entire adult life in politics.”

“That’s a different kind of person, and I very much hope that it has some advantages and some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movement to act as president of the United States.”

U.S. officials believe that Putin and Biden’s face-to-face meeting next week is an opportunity to tilt the relationship between the two countries from what they believe is the flattery of former President Trump to Putin.

Russian officials told Reuters that they saw the summit as an opportunity to listen directly to Biden’s speech, because a source close to the Russian government said that the US government that took office on January 20 sent mixed messages.

When NBC asked Biden about calling him a killer in an interview in March, Putin said he had heard dozens of such allegations. “This is not my biggest worry,” Putin said.