Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and China’s President Xi Jinping shake hands prior to their talks on the sideline of the 11th edition of the BRICS Summit, in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019.The BRICS Summit, gathering the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will take place in Brasilia Nov. 13-14. (Ramil Sitdikov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

If you had one of the world’s foremost Russian collusion truthers praising Putin in order to try to own the orange man, collect your winning at the window.

Seth Abramson has decided to further degrade himself by attempting to compare the supposed “leadership” of Russia’s dictator to Donald Trump’s handling of the current Wuhan virus, because of course.

When Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to bring only good coronavirus news to his people and *can't*, he shuts up completely—at least on coronavirus.

That's *terrible* leadership.

But it's far *better* than what Trump does, which is *lie* whenever he can't offer good news. https://t.co/QSRRRjoePy

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 30, 2020

A normal person would read that excerpt by the Times and conclude Putin is doing what he always does, which is manipulate his highly nationalistic citizens by presenting only a positive face. Abramson is somehow able to transform that into “Putin is a better leader than Trump.”

If you aren’t familiar with Abramson, he’s been a rabid believer and promoter of all manner of conspiracy theories dealing with Trump and Russia. Representing Newsweek’s finest, he’s basically the male version of Louise Mensch, able to connect literally anything to some mythical machination of the Kremlin. If you had listened to Abramson three years ago, you’d have bet that Trump would be in jail right now, taken down by the all powerful Robert Mueller.

Of course, none of that happened because Abramson is a crazy person. But this does go to show just how far the media will go in an attempt to rehabilitate anyone who they think they can pit against the President. That includes Vladimir Putin apparently.