The Kremlin has confirmed a report that Donald Trump sent Vladimir Putin Covid-19 tests, insisting it was part of an international exchange at the start of the pandemic.
In his book War, due to be published on Tuesday, journalist Bob Woodward writes that Trump sent the tests to Putin for the Russian president’s personal use despite a shortage in the US.
The Kremlin confirmed the report on Thursday, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling journalists: “The first tests worked badly and at first there was not enough equipment… all countries tried to somehow exchange between themselves. We sent a supply of ventilator units to the US, they sent these tests to us.”
Mr Peskov said that the exchange occurred “when the pandemic was starting”, adding that the tests “at the time, these were rare items”.
According to Mr Woodward, the reporter who revealed the Watergate scandal, Trump sent a batch of the coveted tests to his counterpart in Moscow when the pandemic was raging. Putin accepted the supplies and urged Trump not to announce the exchange, indicating it would harm him politically.
Putin told Trump: “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me,” according to Mr Woodward.
The journalist, known for breaking the Watergate scandal, also cited an unnamed Trump aide who stated that the former US president and Putin may have spoken up to seven times since 2021 — despite the US effort to help Ukraine resist Russia’s full-scale assault.
The Kremlin spokesman denied this, however, saying: “As for the calls, that’s not true, it didn’t happen.”