US President Donald Trump walks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin earlier than taking a bunch phote on the G20 Summit in Osaka in June 2019. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
- Then US President Donald Trump did secretly ship Covid-19 exams to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has confirmed.
- Artwork the time, such exams had been briefly provide.
- However Moscow denied one other declare in new ebook, that the 2 leaders spoke half a dozen occasions after Trump left workplace.
The Kremlin on Thursday confirmed claims that then-US president Donald Trump despatched Russian President Vladimir Putin Covid exams, however stated it was a part of a global change firstly of the pandemic.
US journalist Bob Woodward wrote in a ebook, “Conflict”, revealed Tuesday, that Trump secretly despatched Covid check kits to Putin regardless of a US scarcity throughout the pandemic, and that Trump spoke a number of occasions with the Russian chief after leaving workplace.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed journalists that “the primary exams labored badly and at first there was not sufficient gear… all nations tried to one way or the other change between themselves. We despatched a provide of ventilator items to the US, they despatched these exams to us.”
Peskov stated that this occurred “when the pandemic was beginning”, saying of the exams that “on the time, these had been uncommon gadgets”.
With the coronavirus raging in 2020, Trump despatched a batch of coveted exams to his counterpart in Moscow. Putin accepted the provides however sought to keep away from political fallout for Trump, urging he not reveal the dispatch of medical gear, the ebook says.
In response to Woodward, Putin instructed Trump: “I do not need you to inform anyone as a result of individuals will get mad at you, not me.”
Woodward additionally cited an unnamed Trump aide who indicated that Trump and Putin might have spoken as much as seven occasions since 2021 — regardless of the US effort to assist Ukraine resist Russia’s full-scale assault.
The Kremlin spokesman denied this, nonetheless.
“However as for the calls, that is not true, it did not occur.”