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.”