Not exactly new, but I just found it. Boris Yeltsin warning Bill Clinton back in 1996.
“There is a U.S. press campaign suggesting that people should not be afraid of the communists; that they are good, honorable and kind people. I warn people not to believe this. More than half of them are fanatics; they would destroy everything. It would mean civil war," he said."They would abolish the boundaries between the republics. They want to take back Crimea; they even make claims against Alaska."
And Yeltsin talking about his successor.
“Putin, of course. He will be the successor to Boris Yeltsin. He's a democrat, and he knows the West," Yeltsin said, speaking of himself in the third person.
https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-s-a-solid ... 62317.html