Vladimir Putin claims he hasn’t spoken to Trump in four years, contradicting Bob Woodward’s report

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he has not spoken to President-elect Donald Trump in four years, which appears to contradict a book by reporter Bob Woodward that claims the two world leaders will not talk to each other after Trump leaves office. Talked several times.

Putin issued his claims during a lengthy news conference on Thursday in which he talked about Russia’s mission in Syria and its war in Ukraine.

“You asked what can we offer President-elect Trump or what can I offer him when we meet,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons. “First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he has not said anything about this. I have not spoken to him at all for the last four years. Of course, I am ready for it at any time and if he wants, I will be ready for the meeting also.

If Putin’s admission of not speaking to Trump in four years turns out to be true, it would contradict explosive claims by reporter Bob Woodward, who alleged that the president-elect secretly sent coronavirus tests to Putin and that he routinely Kept in regular touch with the Russian President. After leaving the office. As AFP reported at the time:

Bob Woodward says in an explosive new book that then-President Donald Trump secretly sent Covid testing kits to Vladimir Putin despite shortages in the US during the pandemic and spoke with the Russian leader several times after leaving office.

The renowned reporter’s piece also details some of President Joe Biden’s own missteps and his struggle to prevent conflict from escalating in the Middle East, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s futile efforts to bring Israel and Hamas to a ceasefire. Resentment is also included.

In excerpts from “War” published Tuesday by The Washington Post, where Woodward is an associate editor, he said Trump has maintained a personal relationship with Putin while he is campaigning for another term and that the Russian president is a member of the U.S. The allies are waging war against Ukraine.

Woodward even argued that Trump talking to Putin made him unfit for the presidency.

Woodward concluded that Trump’s interactions with an authoritarian president at war with a U.S. ally make him more unfit for the presidency than Richard Nixon.