Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “actively hoping” that former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has long praised and even quoted the Russian leader on the campaign trail. At a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, earlier this month, the former president quoted Putin who criticized the numerous criminal charges that Trump is currently facing, all of which the former president has pleaded not guilty to.

“Even Vladimir Putin…says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” Trump quoted Putin as saying, who made the comment during an economic forum in eastern Russia in September. Putin did not name Biden in the original quote.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Trump and Putin has been criticized since the former president’s 2016 run when questions of Russia’s alleged election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign arose.