Story highlights Russian President Vladimir Putin calls Donald Trump "bright"

Putin says Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is more familiar with Hillary Clinton

(CNN) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump "bright" and said his country is prepared to work with any candidate American voters elect.

"Mr. Trump says he's ready to restore full-fledged Russian-American relations. What can be bad about it?"

Putin, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev were part of a panel moderated by CNN's Fareed Zakaria at the 20th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Zakaria read from a report that had Putin calling Trump "brilliant," "outstanding" and "talented." He asked Putin what led him to that judgment and whether he still holds that opinion.

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But Putin told Zakaria he had changed the meaning of his comments. Zakaria said later he was reading from a translation of an Interfax news report

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