Staying in touch with Putin would be ‘smart’

NEW YORK. — Former US President Donald Trump has refused to confirm or deny contacting Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office in 2021, but said that doing so would have been “a smart thing.”

“It’s a good thing” to talk to a leader with thousands of nuclear weapons,” the former US president said yesterday.

Mr Trump has repeatedly vowed to use his “great relationship” with President Putin to end the Ukraine conflict if he is elected next month.

American journalist Mr Bob Woodward’s latest book, ‘War’, which was published this week, claims that Mr Trump secretly spoke to Mr Putin seven times since leaving office in 2021, and sent Russia Covid-19 testing equipment in 2020, while he was still president.

Mr Trump’s campaign initially declared that “none of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true,” but in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Mr John Micklethwait, the former president struck a more ambiguous tone.

“I don’t comment on that, but I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing,” Mr Trump told Mr Mickelthwait.

“If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing, in terms of a country…he’s got 2,000 nuclear weapons and so do we.”

Trump maintains that the Ukraine conflict never would have begun if he had won the 2020 election, and that President Joe Biden’s “stupid words” antagonised Mr Putin into launching his offensive in February 2022.

Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ promise of open-ended support for Ukraine risks dragging the US into “World War III,” Mr Trump has repeatedly declared.

After meeting Ukrainian leader Mr Vladimir Zelensky last month, Mr Trump boasted that he had a “very good relationship” with both Presidents Zelensky and Putin and promised to “get the Ukraine conflict resolved very quickly” if he wins November’s election.

According to his running mate, Mr James David Vance, former President Trump would likely start talks with Russia, Ukraine, and European stakeholders to establish a demilitarised zone along the current front line, with Ukraine agreeing to stay out of NATO

The Kremlin has cast doubt on Mr Trump’s promises of peace, with spokesman Mr Dmitry Peskov suggesting that he does not “think there is a magic wand” that can stop the fighting overnight. – RT.com.