While GOP 2016 presidential front runner Donald Trump declared he doesn’t want the endorsement of rival Jeb Bush should he become the party’s eventual nominee, the brash billionaire on Thursday picked up the support of no less than Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.

A report in The New York Times citing Russia’s official Interfax newswire said Putin praised Trump Thursday after his year-ending conference in Moscow and called him “a very bright and talented man and the absolute leader of the presidential race.”