Russian President Vladimir Putin was just kidding when he claimed to support Vice President Kamala Harris in this year's race for the White House, a top aide said.
"It was a joke. President Putin has a good sense of humor. He often jokes during his statements and interviews," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sky News Arabia on Friday, according to an official Russian government transcript.
Lavrov also professed that Russia wasn't taking sides ahead of the vote, saying officials had "concluded that self-reliance was the best option."
"We will never again pin our hopes on the coming of a 'good guy' to the White House or any other Western capital, who will help things straighten out in our country," he said.
The U.S. has accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 and 2020 elections to support former President Donald Trump, and the Justice Department this month seized 32 internet domains that the Kremlin allegedly used to spread disinformation to subvert November's election.
The next day, Putin said with a smirk that he was supporting Harris.
"We had the current president, Mr. Biden, as our favorite but he was taken out of the race. He recommended all his supporters back Mrs. Harris, so we will too," Putin said, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Putin also said Harris had an "expressive and infectious laugh" that showed "she's doing well." Donald Trump has mocked Harris for her enthusiastic laugh.
Putin's remarks prompted pushback from John Kirby, the White House national security communications adviser, who said that "we would greatly appreciate it if Mr. Putin would: "A, stop talking about our election and, B, stop interfering in it."
During Lavrov's interview with Sky News Arabia, he noted that when Trump was in office, "he had several meetings with Vladimir Putin."
"I was also received at the White House a couple of times. He was friendly," Lavrov said. "But the Trump administration regularly and consistently introduced sanctions against the Russian Federation and those sanctions were rather heavy."
The latter assertion echoed remarks Trump has made during this year's campaign and Lavrov also invoked one of the former president's favorite catchphrases during his remarks.
"I see no long-term differences in our attitude to the current or previous elections in the United States, because it is ruled by the notorious 'deep state,'" Lavrov said.
In 2017, Trump shared highly classified, "code-word information" with Lavrov and then-Russian Ambassador Kislyak during a meeting in the Oval Office, the Washington Post reported at the time.
Trump has also repeatedly praised Putin as "smart" and a "genius," and has claimed that Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine if he had been reelected in 2020.
At his debate with presidential candidate opponent Kamala Harris earlier this month Trump refused to say if he thought Ukraine should win the war, only that he wants the war to end.
