Explaining that he hasn’t phoned Trump himself “because the leaders of Western countries were calling me almost every week at some point, and then suddenly they stopped,” Putin added: “If any of them wants to resume contact, I have always said and I want to say again: we have nothing against it.”
Asked whether he was prepared to hold discussions with Trump, even before he’s ingaurated, Putin said his administration is “ready, ready.”
On the campaign trail, Trump claimed he’d stop the Russia-Ukraine war in one day and vowed to cut back U.S. funding for Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday dismissed Trump’s claim he’d strike a rapid peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, arguing it would amount to a “loss” for Kyiv.
On Thursday, Putin said he didn’t know what Trump would do after he takes office in January given his comments were made during the election campaign “in the battle for votes,” but added: “What has been said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to contribute to the end of the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion — I think it deserves attention.”
Trump has long professed to admire the Russian autocrat, praising Putin repeatedly throughout his campaign for the White House — flattery Putin returned in his Valdai comments.
Putin said he was “impressed” with the way Trump responded to being shot at during an attempted assassination in July. “He turned out to be a courageous man,” the Russian leader said. “He showed himself, in my opinion, in a very correct way: courageous, manly.”
Putin’s comments come amid uncertainty about the incoming Republican administration’s approach to the conflict in Ukraine — and to Russia generally. The Kremlin initially responded coolly to Trump’s win, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling reporters on Tuesday night Putin had no plans to call the president-elect of “an unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state.”
But Thursday’s comments in Valdai indicate Putin is prepared to try to woo Trump.