MOSCOW, March 13 — President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Wednesday that Russia does not interfere in any elections and it will work with any leader the American people elect.

“We do not interfere in any way in any elections,” Putin told Russian state media in a wide-ranging interview. “And, as I have said many times, we will work with any leader who is trusted by the American people, the American voter.”

The war in Ukraine and US assertions that Russia plans to put a nuclear weapon in space have led to the biggest crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

In an interview with RIA state news agency and Rossiya-1 state television, Putin said Russia would be ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty was threatened.

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The Russian leader launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and is nearly certain to win the March 15 to 17 presidential election,

Putin said Donald Trump, when he was president, scolded him for “sympathizing” with now President Joe Biden.

“In the last year of his work as president, Mr. Trump, today’s presidential candidate, reproached me for sympathizing with Biden …. He asked me in one of the conversations: do you want Sleepy Joe to win?” Putin said.

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“And then, to my surprise, they began to persecute him (Trump) because we allegedly supported him as a candidate. Well, it’s some kind of complete nonsense.”

Earlier, Putin said in February he would prefer Biden to Trump as US president, saying Biden was more experienced and more predictable. — Reuters