MOSCOW (AP) - In Vladimir Putin's view, Donald Trump is "bright and talented." But as much as those words sound overtly like praise, there are some murky nuances.
The most unequivocally favorable part of the comments the Russian leader made Thursday to a scrum of reporters after his annual year-end news conference was about the Republican presidential aspirant's claims that he wants to improve relations with Russia.
"He says that he wants to move to another, closer level of relations. Can we really not welcome that? Of course we welcome that," Putin said.
Trump hasn't given details about he would go about achieving that, relying instead on his fireproof self-regard.
"I think that I would probably get along with him very well," Trump said in October.
Putin "does not like Obama at all. He doesn't respect Obama at all. And I'm sure that Obama doesn't like him very much," Trump had said.
Russia-U.S. relations have hit a particularly low point during the Obama administration, with the Kremlin persistently alleging that Washington's pressure on Moscow over human rights and the sanctions imposed over Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine are a cover for fomenting unrest aimed at driving Putin out of office.
"I suppose (Putin) sympathizes with Trump without knowing him well in person, but he is following him closely, what he does and says, just because he is not a kind of usual Western politician," said Alexander Baunov, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center.
While the Obama administration regarded Russia's airstrikes in Syria gingerly, Trump was a full-throated supporter .
Putin assessed Trump as "the absolute leader in the American presidential race," suggesting his comments could be an early attempt to curry favor with a man he may have to deal with.