Obama: Putin fears Hillary Clinton winning the US presidential election.

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

According to CNN, if Obama's assessment is accurate, it shows that while Putin and Trump share many similarities, they did not see eye-to-eye when evaluating Clinton. Specifically, billionaire Donald Trump believed Clinton was too "weak" to be President of the United States.

Hillary Clinton is indeed a formidable opponent for Putin. Photo: AP

Does President Putin have reason to fear Clinton?

President Obama's remarks come amid accusations from the US that Russia is trying to influence the White House race to diminish Clinton's chances of winning.

This stems from the fact that, when hackers released emails from the Democratic National Committee ahead of the Democratic National Convention, cybersecurity experts discovered that "Russian intelligence agencies were involved" in the incident.

At this point, the US government has officially accused Russia of interfering in the US election and stated that there is clear evidence of Russian interference aimed at damaging the reputation of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

According to US officials, Putin genuinely feared the possibility of Clinton becoming the next US president and always considered preventing her from becoming president a strategic goal. In addition, there were some personal reasons for this.

Following Putin's resounding victory in his third presidential election, thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest the results.

The then-US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, publicly supported the protesters in Russia, declaring, "The people of Russia, like people all over the world, deserve a free, fair, and transparent election." In response, Russian President Putin claimed that Clinton had "orchestrated" the protests against him.

Clinton - a thorn in Putin's side?

Putin's "animosity" towards Clinton comes amidst accusations from Western analysts that Russia is conducting a campaign "to discredit the Western model of liberal democracy, divide the transatlantic alliance, interfere in Eastern European countries, and support left-wing forces against the EU." Furthermore, according to these experts, the Kremlin is also seeking to influence elections in Europe and the United States.

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

Unlike Trump, Clinton has made a series of statements over the past few years that she would be even tougher in crushing Putin's ambitions than President Obama. Clinton even asserted that the US needed to find ways to "deter and stop Russian aggression in Europe and beyond."

Furthermore, regarding the crisis in Syria, unlike President Obama's flexible approach to Russia, Clinton showed great determination in establishing a "no-fly zone" in Syria to challenge both the Syrian and Russian armies.

According to Clinton, she would notify Russia in advance about this "no-fly zone" to avoid clashes. However, this is considered a significant departure from the current US government policy and would likely displease Russian President Putin.

Putin: Russia gains nothing from interfering in US elections.

Despite his dislike for Clinton, Russian President Putin asserted that Russia has no intention of interfering in the US presidential election and that it is unclear what will determine who becomes the next US president.

"I want to reassure everyone, including our American friends and partners, that Russia does not intend to interfere in the US presidential election because, quite simply, we cannot predict what will happen after this election," Putin said.

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

"I think that sacrificing the Russia-US relationship for internal American political issues is very dangerous and could backfire," Putin said. "People keep saying, 'Wait, the election is over and everything will return to normal.' However, things so far have not been very pleasant."

The Russian president warned: "If someone wants to confront us, we will have no choice but to retaliate, even though that is something we do not want. We always want to find common ground to resolve the global problems that Russia, the United States, and the whole world are facing."

According to VOV