Putin Says Relationship With Trump Is Casual: 'He's Not My Bride'

The odd statement follows a heightening of tensions between Russia and the U.S.

Neal Broverman

Neal Broverman is the Editorial Director, Print of Pride Media, publishers of The Advocate, Out, Out Traveler, and Plus, spending more than 20 years in journalism. He indulges his interest in transportation and urban planning with regular contributions to Los Angeles magazine, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He lives in the City of Angels with his husband, children, and their chiweenie.

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Neal Broverman

September 05 2017 1:33 PM EST

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Russian President Vladimir Putin -- accused of helping install Donald Trump as president of the U.S. by waging a cyberwar against Trump's campaign opponent, Hillary Clinton -- has downplayed questions that he's grown frustrated with the current American leader.

While Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, the Russian president told reporters in China Monday that the relationship between the two men is simply professional.

"He's not my bride," Putin told a reporter who asked if he was dismayed or disappointed with Trump. "I am also not his bride, nor his groom."

Putin then called the question "naive" and said the two men are simply "engaged in state activity."

Russia has long hoped for America to lift sanctions that prevent the nation from building lucrative oil pipelines. Instead of Trump lifting sanctions -- first enacted in 2014 over Russia's annexation of Crimea and its military presence in Ukraine -- he was forced to sign legislation last month that keeps them in place. The new sanctions were passed with a veto-proof majority in Congress and are punishment for Russia's meddling in last year's election; they take away Trump's ability to lift the previous ones, leaving it under Congress's purview.

In retaliation for Congress's salvo, Russia kicked hundreds of American diplomats out of the country. The U.S. responded by closing the Russian consulate in San Francisco as well as two diplomatic annexes on the East Coast.