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Putin: Trump is "not my bride"

During a summit with the BRICS nations, Putin insisted that Trump is “not my bride, and I am not his groom.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have long had a cozy relationship — but they’re not married, Putin insists.

During a summit with the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — Putin said Trump is “not my bride, and I am not his groom.” He used the comment to deflect a fairly speculative question about American politics.

A reporter asked Putin during the press conference whether Russia is planning for Trump’s impeachment — an unlikely possibility that would require the Republican-led House of Representatives to vote against its party’s leader.

Putin, however, didn’t give a straight answer, instead insisting that the Russian government has the right to retaliate for the Trump administration’s decision last week to close the Russian consulate in San Francisco, as well as two other Russian facilities in New York and Washington, D.C., that house trade missions.

It’s “an obvious violation of property rights,” Putin added. The Russian president also suggested he could force 155 more U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia to leave their posts. He already sent 755 U.S. diplomats home earlier in the summer when the U.S. slapped another round of sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2016 presidential election and its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“But we won’t do that yet,” Putin said, sounding a lot like his U.S. counterpart. “Let’s see how the situation develops.”