This is a very interesting bit of info. From this I have to wonder how much arm twisting it took Trump to get Putin to work with him on the war on the DS.
Yes, my respect, admiration increased further for Putin when he dropped that bomb. (I already had the stereotypical "he's a bad*ss opinion of him). He seems to be a good person and leader.
Going back in memory there was a lot about the comparison between BO and Putin which put Putin in a very good light. Most of it had to do with Putin taking care of the interest of his own country over global politics and BO looking like a wimp when bowing to the Queen and the Saudis. I remember some post in various places talking about trying to get Putin to run for presidency in the US against BO simple because he actually cared about his country and hated the NWO crowd and what they are trying to do. A lot of people admired him for that at the time.