A few months ago, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seemed on course to becoming best buddies.

Asked in December for his view of the Republican presidential frontrunner, the Russian president described him as “a colourful and talented person without any doubt” and “the absolute leader of the presidential race”. Trump welcomed the praise, saying: “It is always a great honour to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.”

Any cosiness has been brought to an abrupt halt, however, after Trump lumped Putin in with Islamic State in a bizarre campaign ad featuring Hillary Clinton barking like a dog.

The video, posted on Trump’s Instagram account, attempts to cast doubt over the Democratic party frontrunner’s ability to deal with Putin and America’s opponents in general, showing the Russian leader throwing an opponent in a judo bout, and an Islamist militant gesturing at the camera with a gun.

“When it comes to facing our toughest opponents, the Democrats have the perfect answer,” the video says, before cutting to footage of Clinton imitating a dog at a recent campaign event.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had seen the clip but did not know if Putin had. “Our attitude is negative,” he said.

“It’s an open secret for us that demonising Russia and whatever is linked to Russia is unfortunately a mandatory hallmark of America’s election campaign. We always sincerely regret this and wish the electoral process was conducted without such references to our country,” Peskov said.

During her 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton poked fun at George Bush over his comment that he had looked into Putin’s eyes and got a sense of his soul. Putin, said Clinton, “doesn’t have a soul”. Asked for a response, Putin said: “As a minimum, a head of state should have a head”.



