President Vladimir Putin has said he is ready to discuss the war in Ukraine with US President Donald Trump after he warned his Russian counterpart to end the war quickly, or else face “high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions.”
In his first comments, since Trump issued the threats, Putin said he’s ready for negotiations.
Putin told a Russian state TV journalist: “We believe the current president’s statements about his readiness to work together. We are always open to this and ready for negotiations.
“It would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly.”
Putin went on to describe his relationship with Trump as “businesslike, pragmatic and trustworthy”.
‘He is not only a smart person, but a pragmatic person,’ Putin told state media of his American counterpart.
‘I have a hard time imagining there will be decisions taken that are detrimental to the American economy.
He added that negotiating with Ukraine was complicated by the fact that its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had signed a decree preventing him from conducting talks with Putin.
Putin also said the war in Ukraine could have been averted had Donald Trump not been ‘robbed of the election’ in 2020.
‘I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president if his victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then perhaps there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022,’ the Russian president said.
