Vladimir Putin is good again, at least according to some liberals. The Russian dictator came out yesterday and defended Joe Biden, saying that there was nothing criminal about what the former VP and his son were doing in their corrupt business dealings.

Here’s a blue-check leftie practically giddy over the news.

And there it is. Putin said today that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden's past business ties with Ukraine or Russia, in a sharp break with Trump.

With Trump’s re-election unlikely, Putin’s got no more use for him. https://t.co/SKZ4yery9p

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) October 25, 2020

So, now we trust Putin’s declarations on important topics? Or does the previous standard to assume the opposite of what the Russian leader says still apply? It’s all very convenient, yet completely predictable.

But it wasn’t just podcast hosts. Look at how Reuters themselves wrote this up.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden’s past business ties with Ukraine or Russia, marking out his disagreement with one of Donald Trump’s attack lines in the U.S. presidential election.

Putin was responding to comments made by Trump during televised debates with Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Trump, who is trailing in opinion polls, has used the debates to make accusations that Biden and his son Hunter engaged in unethical practices in Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Joe Biden has called them false and discredited.

Notice how they suddenly present Putin as a credible, unbiased figure because the orange man is bad. That the Russian VP would speak against Trump here is not authoritative, but manipulative.

Putin has never actually “liked” Donald Trump and everyone with any sense knows that. Trump has been far harder on Russia than Joe Biden ever was as Vice President. Under the Obama administration, Russia was allowed to take over large swaths of the Middle East, including via a “deal” made with John Kerry’s State Department that basically handed over Syria. The Iran deal was heavily supported by Russia because Iran is a Russian proxy. Then there’s Crimea, where Putin actually invaded another country without a finger being lifted.

None of that happened on Trump’s watch. That was all Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s doing. They can’t now pretend, nor can the media or left-wing pretend, that Putin would actually prefer to have Trump thumping him in the nose another four years. Foreign adversaries don’t care about rhetoric. They care about actions.

Of note in that Reuters piece is that they also lie about the evidence supporting what Joe and Hunter Biden did. The emails are real and no one denies that at this point except ridiculous MSNBC and CNN anchors. Not even the Biden campaign says they aren’t real. For Reuters to play all this as “unverified” is abject nonsense.

But this is the kind of thing you can look forward to if Joe Biden is elected. Every past standard will be cast aside to feed whatever pro-Democrat message is needed at the time. If that means Putin is good again, then so be it in their minds.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)