Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has denied reports that Donald Trump had spoken to him in recent days following his election victory.
The alleged call was first reported by the Washington Post on Sunday, citing unidentified sources, and said that Trump had told Putin that he should not escalate the Ukraine war. News agency Reuters also reported on the call, citing an unidentified source.
During the reported call, Trump allegedly advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of ‘Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe’, according to the Washington Post.
But now Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied this call took place. ‘This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information,’ he said. ‘There was no conversation.’
‘This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications,’ Peskov said.
Asked if Putin had plans for any contacts with Trump, Peskov said: ‘There are no concrete plans yet.’
Putin congratulated Trump on Thursday, praised him for showing courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him, and said Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect.
According to Mail Online, Russia has been signalling to the US and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles, then Moscow will consider it a major escalation.
Putin said on September 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean ‘the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine’ because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.
The Kremlin said that it sensed European powers were nervous about Trump’s election, but that they were still ‘pumping weapons into Ukraine in order to continue this war to the end.’
Kremlin spokesman Peskov was also asked about reports that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron wanted to convince US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to fire Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia.
‘Nothing can be ruled out,’ Peskov said, adding that European leaders still wanted to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
‘We, in turn, will continue the SMO (special military operation) until we achieve all our goals,’ Peskov said.
‘The dynamic of the SMO is well understood by the military. They understand well what is happening. And it is probably important to note that no individual types of weapons are able to change this dynamic anymore.’
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