Clinton: Putin arrogant, charming

Hillary Clinton called Russian President Vladimir Putin “tough” and “arrogant” — if at times capable of charm — and noted that she had raised concerns about him to President Barack Obama.

She made the comments in an interview with CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria, set to air on his eponymous show at 10 a.m. Sunday.

“He acts, you know, bored and dismissive,” said Clinton, the former secretary of state and possible 2016 Democratic frontrunner, according to a transcript released Friday. “So he has a lot of personas that he pulls out — if he wants to stare intently at you with his very, you know, bright blue eyes, because he wants something from you, or he wants to convey a message to you, he can turn on the charm. But he can also be, you know, very tough to deal with and act as though it’s a burden on him to be in conversations with other world leaders.”

Clinton, who has defended the Obama administration’s “reset” of relations with Russia as being effective for a time, also noted in the interview that she “was among the most skeptical of Putin.” Clinton, on tour to promote her new memoir of her time at the State Department, “Hard Choices,” has generated much scrutiny over the extent to which her foreign policy views aligned with others in the administration.

In the interview, she made clear that she communicated her later reservations about Putin to Obama.

“I, you know, certainly made my views known in, you know, in meetings, as well as in memos to the president,” she said. Regarding the long-term viability of the “reset,” she said that “I think that what may have happened, is that both the United States and Europe were really hoping for the best from Putin as a returned president. And I think we’ve been quickly, unfortunately, disabused of those hopes.”...