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A clip of Rudy Giuliani praising Vladimir Putin a number of years ago has resurfaced on social media as the Russian president currently leads a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"Putin decides what he wants to do and he does it in half a day, right?" the former New York mayor and Donald Trump acolyte said in a 2014 appearance on Fox News that has amassed thousands of views on Twitter this week.
Speaking to anchor Neil Cavuto about Russia's occupation and annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014, Giuliani said: "He decided he had to go to their parliament. He went to their parliament. He got permission in 15 minutes."
Cavuto interjected: "Well, that was kind of like perfunctory."
Giuliani continued: "But he makes a decision and he executes it, quickly. Then everybody reacts. That's what you call a leader."
He then used the opportunity to criticized former President Barrack Obama: "President Obama, he's got to think about it. He's got to go over it again. He's got to talk to more people about it."
The clip was shared by Twitter user Elijah Cone on Wednesday and had been viewed more than 36,000 times at the time of publication.
good lord this clip of Rudy Giuliani praising Vladimir Putin has aged so, so badly. Republicans have been on this kick for a long time. pic.twitter.com/fTBDbVOBUW
— Elijah Cone (@ElijahCone) March 9, 2022
The video previously went viral in May 2019—racking up more than 350,000 views—when it was posted by Scoot Dworkin, the co-founder of The Dem Coalition.
Giuliani, a former personal attorney to Trump, worked with the former president on matters related to the special counsel investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia back in 2018.
However, the former New York City mayor has been linked to Russia in other ways, too. His apartment was raided last May as part of an investigation into his dealings with Ukraine in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. His lawyer called the searches "blatant thuggery" at the time, per The New York Times.
In 2019, the FBI reportedly learned that Russia was using Giuliani as a tool to spread election disinformation. The Washington Post and The New York Times then both retracted claims that the bureau had warned Giuliani about his part in the disinformation campaign.
Giuliani insisted he was "not a Russian agent" and described himself as "the biggest anti-communist you ever met" in May 2021.
The former mayor made headlines again this week when the new season of The Masked Singer premiered on Wednesday night. There was uproar when Giuliani was revealed to be one of the mystery contestants during a taping of the show earlier this year.
However, the first episode has prompted questions about whether he was cut from the show, as he did not make his much-anticipated appearance.
