A smirking Vladimir Putin said Thursday he supported Kamala Harris in the upcoming US presidential election just a day after Washington accused Moscow of tampering with the vote. 

‘Firstly, (US President Joe) Biden recommended all his supporters support Mrs Harris,’ Putin said during a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

‘Here, we are going to do that too, we’re going to support her,’ he added, with a wry smile.

‘She laughs so contagiously that it shows that everything is fine with her,’ the Russian leader said, as members of the public laughed. 

‘(Former US President Donald) Trump has imposed as many sanctions on Russia as any president has ever imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from such actions.’ 

A smirking Vladimir Putin said Thursday he supported Kamala Harris in the upcoming US presidential election

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign stop at the Throwback Brewery, in North Hampton yesterday

This comes after US officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in Washington confirmed in July the existence of the Russian plan to install ex President Donald Trump in the White House. 

Putin’s comments come a day after the U.S. detailed its efforts to push back on Russia’s influence on the November 4 election. 

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These include sanctions, indictments and seizing web domains that Washington officials say Russia uses to spread disinformation and propaganda.

The US yesterday indicted two employees of state-run Russian news network RT and slapped sanctions on its top editors Margarita Simonyan and her deputy Elizaveta Brodskaia after Washington accused them of trying to influence the upcoming US ballot. 

Simonyan was a ‘central figure in Russian government malign influence efforts,’ the Treasury Department said, while Brodskaia ‘reported to Russian President Putin and other government officials’, officials said. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured with editor-in-chief of RT broadcaster Margarita Simonyan in December 2022. Simonyan is one of the 10 individuals and two entities sanctioned by the Treasury Department

The bombshell indictment also accused RT employees Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena of Afanasyeva of implementing a plan to shell out nearly $10million to a Tennessee-based company to churn out videos ‘consistent’ with the Kremlin’s ‘interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.’

In response, the Kremlin said it will take retaliatory action against American news outlets and accused the U.S. of purging any dissenting voices from the global media landscape and to stoke fears among US voters about Russia as a mythical external enemy. 

In February, Putin backed Biden over Trump, calling the current president more ‘predictable’. The White House called on Putin to ‘stay out’ of US elections. 

Last year, the Russian leader had said that the US political system was ‘rotten’ and that Washington could not lecture other countries about democracy.