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Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with President-elect Trump without conditions, the Kremlin said Friday, but expects more details after the U.S. presidential inauguration.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow welcomes Trump’s intentions “to resolve issues through dialogue,” according to a summary of the remarks by Russian state news agency TASS.
The remarks followed Trump telling a gathering of Republican governors that he is working on creating a meeting with Putin
Trump has said ending Russia’s war in Ukraine will be a top priority and has talked about meeting Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reach an agreement to end the war. However, he appears to have gone back on his promise to end the war on inauguration day.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Trump said that Putin wants to meet with him and that the two leaders could meet after he is sworn in on January 20.
“I know Putin would like to meet, I don’t think it’s appropriate for him to meet me until after the 20th.” Trump said during a press conference held at his Florida residence, Mar-A-Lago.
According to reporter Bob Woodward, Trump spoke with Putin several times while he was out of office. And the Washington Post reported shortly after the November election that Trump spoke to Putin and asked him not to escalate the war. The Kremlin denied both reports.
Trump’s pick for special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, said he is working to “set the conditions” for the president-elect to meet with Putin and Zelensky.
“I think they’re going to come to a workable solution in the short term. And when I say short term, let’s put it in 100 days and come back,” Kellogg said in an interview with Fox News earlier this week.
Zelensky, during a wide-ranging interview with podcaster Lex Friedman earlier this week, said he is not opposed to dialogue to end the war with Russia, but said Ukraine must be in a strong position to force Putin to reach a resolution.
Zelensky called it naive to say Putin wants to end the war and urged Trump to show strength in any talks with the Russian leader.
“I think President Trump not only has the will … he has enough power to pressure him, to pressure Putin, not to want to stop it,” Zelensky said. “No, he (Putin) won’t. Pressuring him to actually stop it, that’s the difference.”
