Friday, December 20, 2024 - Russian President, Vladimir Putin has revealed he has not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in over four years, but is “ready” for potential talks with him, amid expectation that the new administration in Washington will push for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.
During the Russian president’s marathon year-end news
conference, Putin also declined to say when Russian forces would retake the
southern Kursk region from Ukraine, insisting that they were making advances
“along the entire frontline.”
The Moscow event on Thursday, December 9, consists of a
public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in, which Putin stages
annually to show his sweeping control of all aspects of the country.
“You asked what we can offer, or what I can offer to the
newly elected President Trump when we meet,” Putin said in response to a
question from NBC’s Kier Simmons.
“First of all, I don’t know when we will meet. Because he
hasn’t said anything about it. I haven’t spoken to him at all in over four
years. Of course, I am ready for this at any time, and I will be ready for a
meeting if he wants it.”
Asked whether Russia would be in a weaker negotiating
position because of recent setbacks in the Middle East and on the battlefield
in Ukraine, Putin replied;
‘You said that this conversation will take place in a
situation when I am in some weakened state… And you, and those people who pay
your salaries in the US, would very much like Russia to be in a weakened
position.
“I adhere to a different point of view. I believe that
Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years. Why? Because
we are becoming a truly sovereign country, we are already hardly dependent on
anyone.”
Trump has denied having multiple calls with Putin since
leaving office, contradicting a report by veteran journalist Bob Woodward in a
recent book that the pair had held “maybe as many as seven” conversations since
2021.
Asked about Russia’s southern Kursk, where Kyiv’s forces are
fighting to hold onto settlements following a surprise incursion launched in
August, Putin declined to commit to stating when Russia would recapture the
whole region – but promised it would happen.
“I cannot and do not want to name a specific date when they
will push [the Ukrainian Armed Forces out of the Kursk region],” he said.
“Our guys are fighting, there is a battle going on right
now, and serious battles. It is unclear why, there was no military sense in the
Ukrainian Armed Forces entering the Kursk region, or holding on there now as
they are doing, throwing their best units there to be slaughtered. But
nevertheless, it is happening.”
He added, “We will definitely push them out, there is no
other way.”
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