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Trump’s spokesman declined to comment on what he called his “private conversations” with world leaders.
The The Washington Post the first reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources, that the two spoke on Thursday, with Trump advising Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine, citing the significant US military presence in Europe.
In a conference call with reporters on Monday, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “there was no conversation” and that the report was “completely untrue, it’s pure fiction.”
Asked about the report, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”
Speaking at a foreign policy forum on Thursday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin congratulated Trump on his election victory and praised him for what he said was “courageous” behavior during the July assassination attempt.
Peskov said that there are “no concrete plans yet” for a meeting between Putin and Trump.
He previously said contacts between the two before Trump’s inauguration were “not out of the question” and pointed to Trump saying he would call Putin before the inauguration.
He denied, however, that the Russian presidential administration or the State Department had any contact with the Trump campaign after the election.
Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he could quickly end the fighting in Ukraine, but offered no details on how he would accomplish that.
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