Obama: Putin fears Hillary Clinton winning the US presidency

US President Barack Obama affirmed that his Russian counterpart Putin is very concerned about the possibility of Mrs. Clinton defeating American billionaire Donald Trump.

According to CNN, if Obama’s assessment is correct, it shows that although Putin and Trump have many things in common, they do not share the same views on Clinton. Accordingly, American billionaire Donald Trump believes that Clinton is too “weak” to become President of the United States.

Hillary Clinton is truly a formidable opponent to Mr. Putin. Photo: AP

Does President Putin have reason to fear Mrs. Clinton?

President Obama's comments came as the US accused Russia of trying to influence the race to the White House in order to reduce Mrs. Clinton's chances of winning.

This comes after hackers released emails from the Democratic National Committee ahead of the Democratic National Convention, prompting cybersecurity experts to suggest “the hand of Russian intelligence agencies” in the incident.

Up to this point, the US Government has officially accused Russia of interfering in the US election and declared that there is clear evidence of Russian interference to destroy the reputation of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

According to US officials, Mr. Putin is really afraid of the possibility of Mrs. Clinton becoming the next President of the United States and has always considered being able to stop Mrs. Clinton as a strategic goal. In addition, this also has some personal reasons.

After Mr. Putin won a resounding victory in the third presidential election, thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest the result.

Then-US Secretary of State Clinton publicly supported the protesters in Russia, declaring that “the Russian people, like people around the world, deserve free, fair and transparent elections.” In response, Russian President Putin said that it was Clinton who “pulled the strings” to get the protesters to protest against him.

Clinton - a thorn in Putin's side?

Mr. Putin’s “enmity” toward Mrs. Clinton comes as Western analysts accuse Russia of conducting a campaign “to smear the Western model of liberal democracy, divide the transatlantic alliance, interfere in Eastern European countries and support left-wing forces against the EU.” Not only that, according to these experts, the Kremlin also seeks to influence elections in Europe and the US.

These experts also believe that Mrs. Clinton "is the cornerstone that prevents Mr. Putin from achieving his goals of restoring Russia's influence in the post-Soviet space as well as weakening Europe, the US and NATO."

Unlike Mr Trump, Mrs Clinton has made a series of statements over the past few years that she will be tougher in crushing Mr Putin’s ambitions than President Obama. Mrs Clinton even asserted that the US needs to find a way to “stop and deter Russia’s aggressive actions in Europe and beyond.”

Not only that, regarding the crisis in Syria, different from President Obama's flexible policy in his approach to Russia, Mrs. Clinton showed great determination in establishing a "no-fly zone" in Syria to challenge both the Syrian and Russian armies.

According to Mrs. Clinton, she will notify Russia in advance about this “no-fly zone” to avoid any clashes. However, this is considered completely different from the current policy of the US Government and will make Russian President Putin “feel uncomfortable”.

Putin: Russia has nothing to gain from interfering in US elections

Although he "dislikes Mrs. Clinton," Russian President Putin still affirmed that Russia has no intention of interfering in the US presidential election and it is also unclear what will decide who will become the next US President.

“I want to reassure everyone, including our American friends and partners, that Russia has no intention of interfering in the US presidential election because the answer is very simple, we cannot predict what will happen after this election,” Mr. Putin said.

President Putin explained that although the Republican presidential candidate called for cooperation with Russia in the fight against terrorism while Mrs. Clinton had an "aggressive" tone towards Russia, he was not sure whether they would do so after being elected.

“I think that sacrificing Russian-American relations for the sake of domestic political problems in the United States is very dangerous and can be counterproductive,” Putin said. “People keep saying, wait, the election is almost over and everything will return to normal. However, things are not very pleasant so far.”

“If someone wants to confront us, we will have no choice but to respond, even if it is not what we want. We always want to find a common voice to solve global problems that Russia, the United States and the whole world are facing,” the Russian president warned.

According to VOV