Russian President Vladimir Putin said today he is "open to discussions" with US President Donald Trump about working together on issues such as the war in Ukraine and energy prices, saying it would be a good idea for them to meet.
But Putin told a Russian television journalist that the issue of negotiations with Ukraine is complicated by the fact that its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has signed a decree preventing him from holding talks with the Kremlin leader.
In fact, he noted that Zelensky's allies should force him to cancel the decision banning negotiations.
"Zelensky is in no hurry to follow the instructions of his sponsors - and we know that there are such instructions - to cancel the decree he issued that prohibits negotiations. I think that in the end, those who pay him money should force him to do this," Putin said.
Putin called Trump smart and pragmatic. He said he does not expect the US president to make decisions on sanctions against Russia that would negatively affect the US economy.
"He is not only intelligent, but also a realist. And I can hardly imagine that he will make decisions that will harm the American economy itself," the Russian president said.
The Kremlin chief continued: “Therefore, perhaps, it would be better for us to meet, based on today's realities, to talk calmly about everyone, about those areas of interest to both the United States and Russia. We are ready. But, I repeat, this depends primarily, of course, on the decisions and choices of the current American government . ”
The Russian president also said that the “crisis in Ukraine” in 2022, the year the Kremlin launched the invasion, could probably have been avoided if Donald Trump had been in the White House.
“I can only agree with (Donald Trump) that if he had been president, if he had not been robbed of his victory in 2020, maybe the crisis in Ukraine that happened in 2022 would not have followed,” he told state television, repeating claims that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” by Joe Biden.
“What is typical of the Russian and American economies? We are not only one of the largest producers of energy resources, but we are also the largest consumers of energy resources. And this means that for both our economy and the American one, too high prices are bad. Because we have to produce domestically, using energy resources, we have to produce other goods domestically. And too low prices are also very bad because they undermine investment opportunities for energy companies. There is something we need to discuss here...”, Putin also said about energy and Trump’s demand to lower the price of oil.
Regarding the Biden administration’s stance on refusing negotiations with Moscow, Putin said: “Indeed, the current US president has made many statements on this issue. First of all, I want to say that Russia has never refused to have contacts with the US, and it is not our fault that the previous government refused these contacts” . (A2 Televizion)
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