International

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered something of a backhanded compliment to Donald Trump on Sunday, saying the U.S. president-elect is smart enough to understand that he’s going to shoulder a whole new level of responsibilities come January.

“To the extent that he was able to achieve success in business, this shows that he’s a smart person,” Putin said in snippets of an interview with broadcaster NTV set to be aired in full Sunday evening. “And if he’s a smart person, that means that he will totally and quite quickly understand the different level of his responsibility [as a statesman]. We presume that he will act based on this position.”

Trump has said that he wants to establish better relations with Putin, particularly in international security. While that presents opportunities for the Kremlin, Putin’s remarks also signaled concerns, voiced by insiders, that Trump could be an unpredictable partner.

Putin called Trump “talented” and “colorful” during the U.S. election campaign (Trump said Putin had called him “a genius,” thanks to a mistranslation), but the Kremlin has been reserved in its praise since Trump won the presidency last month. Putin did not mention the president-elect in a speech to lawmakers last week, during which he brushed off accusations that Russia had meddled in the U.S. elections.