Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Profimedia
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent Christmas cards to his US counterpart Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, according to Russian news agency Tass.
“The president has already congratulated Trump on Christmas and sent him a telegram on this occasion,” Peskov said.
A Kremlin aide had previously announced Moscow's plans to congratulate the US president on the occasion of the winter holidays. Yury Ushakov noted that, being “polite people,” Russian leaders would certainly send a message to Washington.
The statement comes in the context in which, also on Thursday, the Kremlin spokesman said that Putin's agenda does not include any conversation with the American president. Peskov also said that the Moscow leader would hold talks with world leaders later today.
If Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart need to get in touch during the Christmas period, there will be no problem in organizing a telephone conversation, Dmitry Peskov also said.
“The Christmas holidays are approaching, in fact they have already started. Life slows down around this time. But if need be, we have the ability to organize [o conversație] quite promptly,” noted the Kremlin spokesman.
Putin also congratulated Kim Jong-un
Vladimir Putin praised the “invincible friendship” between Russia and North Korea, which have grown closer amid the war in Ukraine, in a congratulatory letter addressed to leader Kim Jong Un, the official North Korean agency reported on Thursday, according to News.ro.
North Korea does not celebrate Christmas, and December 24 is a public holiday, marking the birthday of Kim Jong-suk, the grandmother of Kim Jong-un and the first wife of Kim Il-sung, North Korea's founding dictator. According to the EFE agency, the message was sent on the occasion of the New Year.
Vladimir Putin hails North Korean soldiers' 'heroic entry' into Kursk in New Year message to Kim Jong-un: 'Invincible friendship'
The Russian president says that the participation of North Korean soldiers in Moscow's war effort in Ukraine proves the “militant brotherhood” between the two states, in the letter received last week by Pyongyang.
“The heroic entry of the soldiers of the Korean People's Army into the battles for the liberation of the Kursk region from the occupiers and the subsequent activities of the Korean engineers on Russian territory clearly proved this invincible friendship,” Putin wrote, according to the official KCNA news agency.
