Although Vladimir Putin once hailed Donald Trump as a "very talented" man and "the absolute leader of the presidential race," the Russian leader actually wanted the U.S. Republican presidential front-runner to lose the 2016 White House race.

The assessment came from Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, a highly respected international adviser and expert who was once dubbed as the "Global Sherpa," WND reported.

According to Malloch, Putin prefers to have Hillary Clinton succeed President Barack Obama since he believes that Russia would have a much easier time dealing with the U.S. with Clinton in the White House.

"The Russians fear real strength and Trump shows no sign of being afraid of confronting anybody, Putin included," said Malloch, a man who has set up international conferences, held a United Nations post, mingled with the top players in Washington and lists multiple foundation board memberships on his resume. He held senior policy positions at the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the U.S. State Department, and currently advises numerous international and U.S. governmental bodies and think tanks.

"What Putin fears is that a Trump presidency would mark a return of the United States to a foreign policy of confrontation with Russia," Malloch said.

The international expert likened Trump to former President Ronald Reagan who boldly confronted the Soviet Union during his time, eventually winning the Cold War that led to the breakup of the Soviet empire.

"Trump would probably be willing to take the same economic gamble Reagan took in 1982," Malloch said. "In 1982, Reagan calculated the Soviet Union's economic dependence upon oil created a vulnerability the U.S. could exploit by encouraging the Saudis to pump, aiming to create a worldwide oil glut that would cause the price of oil to plummet.

"Today, the same economics are in play, such that Donald Trump in the White House would need no weapon greater than the price of oil to bring Putin to his knees," Malloch stressed, completing the comparison.

"Putin has studied [former Soviet president Mikhail] Gorbachev and he understands how Reagan used oil to win the Cold War," Malloch pointed out.

He said a President Trump would even have a much easier time than Reagan in using oil as an economic weapon against Russia.

In 1982, Reagan had to turn to Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to lower the price of oil. But today, he said the United States has once again been restored to a top position as a world leader in crude oil production. With U.S. oil production rising, the price of oil on world markets has fallen, which adversely affects Russia, Malloch said.