In an interview with Russian state television, Russia President Vladimir Putin weighed in publicly for the first time on the upcoming U.S. presidential election. According to the Associated Press, “Putin said that Russia would prefer to see U.S. President Joe Biden win a second term, describing him as more experienced and predictable than Donald Trump — even though Moscow strongly disagrees with the current administration’s policies.”
Thom Shanker is the director of the Project for Media & National Security at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. He was named director after a nearly quarter-century career with The New York Times, including 13 years as Pentagon correspondent covering the Department of Defense, overseas combat operations and national security policy. Before joining The Times, he was foreign editor of The Chicago Tribune. He spent five years as The Tribune's Moscow correspondent, covering the start of the Gorbachev era to the death of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the communist empire in Eastern Europe.
Shanker recently published the book Age of Danger. In the Russia chapter, Shanker and his co-author discuss what forces created Vladimir Putin, how he views the world and how the West has consistently misjudged him -- at least up to the second Ukraine invasion. Shanker also met Putin when he was based in Moscow back in the late '80s/early 90s, before he was Putin we know today.
If you would like to speak with Shanker, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
-GW-