Putin snored through Biden debate disaster, Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoyed a lie-in on Friday instead of watching the debate between U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump.

“I don’t think that you can expect the Russian president to set his alarm, wake up early morning and watch the debate,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov snarked. “This isn’t a main event for us.”

The debate kicked off at 9 p.m. in Atlanta, which is 4 a.m. in Moscow. Biden’s halting performance alarmed allies and triggered calls from Democrats that he should pull out of the election race.

Peskov added, without irony, that Russia has “never interfered in electoral campaigns” and has “no intention at all” of commenting on the debate. Moscow has been accused by multiple Western countries across multiple elections of meddling in democratic processes in recent years.

While Putin’s top team affected disinterest in the showdown, his agents of chaos in Russia’s state media leapt into action, mainly focusing on their statements about Russia and its war in Ukraine.

State news agency RIA published a tally of how often the two candidates mentioned the name “Vladimir Putin” (seven times for both) and Russia (Trump: 16, Biden: 0).

Russian media also zeroed in on Biden’s comments that the Kremlin would not limit itself to conquering Ukraine and wanted to “re-establish what was part of the Soviet Empire,” and his description of Putin as a “war criminal.”

There are several reasons Moscow would prefer a Trump presidency — the Republican candidate has threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO and is skeptical of American aid to Ukraine — and Russian coverage generally maintained a neutral tone toward him, while being less generous with his opponent.

“Biden expectedly misspoke multiple times and stammered, Democrats have already called his performance a failure,” state news agency RIA concluded, leaving Trump out of its crosshairs altogether.

Pro-Kremlin figures and state media also widely shared the results of a CNN poll showing that Americans overwhelmingly believed Trump won the debate.

The debate kicked off at 9 p.m. in Atlanta. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Several Russian media outlets also ran separate stories on Trump’s statement that “Ukraine’s not winning that war” and suffering heavy losses — a message that will be well received by many Russians — because of Biden “and his stupid decisions.”

And yet the tone in Moscow toward Trump has been notably less enthusiastic than several years ago when he first ran for president.

The lack of what Moscow sees as progress on reversing sanctions during Trump’s presidential stint appears to have instilled a level of cynicism among Kremlin propagandists toward both candidates.

“In reality, there is no Trump plan whatsoever” to resolve the war in Ukraine, Spiridon Kilinkarov, a former Ukrainian lawmaker turned pro-Kremlin commentator, said ahead of the debate on the “Gaparyan” current affairs show.

“We should not have illusions about a change of political leadership as a result of the U.S. elections,” he added. “They all want, if not Russia’s defeat, then an exit from this situation at Russia’s expense. When it comes to this nothing has changed, and there is a certain consensus on this.”

That apprehension seemed to be confirmed by Trump during the debate, with several Russian outlets on Friday headlining with Trump’s rejection of Russia’s proposal for peace — if it gets to keep Ukrainian territory — as “not acceptable.”

Putin has said in the past that he prefers Biden to Trump because he’s “more experienced, more predictable” — but whether that’s a real endorsement for the man who called Putin a “killer” is questionable.