Putin Can’t Play Trump Like a Fiddle, Kremlin Says

(Bloomberg) -- The Kremlin rejected former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton’s claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin can play Donald Trump “like a fiddle.”

“No, Putin can’t play Trump like a fiddle,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday on a conference call. The U.S. president can’t be manipulated in this way, Peskov added.

Putin, who showed off his abilities on the piano while waiting to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2017, has repeatedly spoken warmly of Trump since he became U.S. president.

Bolton made the claim in an ABC News interview on Wednesday in which he described Putin as “smart, tough” and said: “I don’t think he’s worried about Donald Trump.”

The former top offiical left the White House in September. He has roiled the Trump administration with a new book offering a devastating portrayal of the president’s conduct of foreign policy

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