Kremlin Dismisses Reports Trump, Putin Spoke

The Kremlin dismissed on Monday reports that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent days as “pure fiction.”

A source told Reuters on Sunday that Trump, who has criticised the scale of U.S. military and financial support for Kyiv and said he would end the war quickly and had spoken to Putin in recent days.

The source said that they were familiar with the conversation, first reported by The Washington Post, opens new tab, which cited unidentified sources as saying Trump had told Putin that he should not escalate the Ukraine war. Reports said

In an unusual move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that on Monday, no such call had taken place between Putin and Trump.

Pure Fiction
“This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction. It’s just false information,” he told reporters. “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,” he said.

Asked whether Putin had plans for any contacts with Trump, Peskov said: “There are no concrete plans yet.”
Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last Wednesday.

Asked about the purported Trump-Putin call, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”

Republican Trump will take office on Jan. 20 after winning the Nov. 5 presidential election. Biden invited Trump to the Oval Office on Wednesday, the White House said.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday Biden’s top message would be his commitment to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, and he will also talk to Trump about what’s happening in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Reuters/Shakirat Sadiq