The Kremlin confirmed Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted to Donald Trump a portrait he commissioned of the U.S. president.
Putin gave the portray to Trump’s particular envoy, Steve Witkoff, in Moscow earlier this month, the Russian president’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, stated in a response to a journalist’s query, declining additional remark.
The present was first talked about final week by Witkoff in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Witkoff instructed Carlson that Trump “was clearly touched” by the portrait, which he described as “stunning.”
Witkoff met Putin after talks with Russian officers about attempting to finish the conflict in Ukraine. Ceasefire talks continued Monday in Saudi Arabia, the place U.S. officers met their Russian counterparts, a day after assembly with Ukrainian negotiators.
Throughout his interview with Carlson, Witkoff described Putin’s present as “gracious” and recalled how Putin instructed him he had prayed for Trump final 12 months when he heard the then-candidate for the U.S. presidency had been shot at a rally in Pennsylvania. “He was praying for his buddy,” Witkoff stated, recounting Putin’s feedback.
In 2018, Putin gave then-President Trump a soccer ball that the Secret Service had checked for listening units earlier than Trump gave it to his son — a precaution that hearkened again to a Soviet-era present to a U.S. diplomat that turned out to be bugged.
In 1945, a carving of the Nice Seal of the USA was given as a present from Soviet college youngsters to then-U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman. It hung in his workplace for six years permitting the Soviet Union to snoop on his conversations till the State Division found that it contained a covert listening gadget.
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It was not instantly identified if the portrait Putin gave to Trump had been examined for bugs. The White Home hasn’t commented on the portrait.
Trump isn’t the primary sitting president to obtain a present from Putin. In 2021, Putin gave then-President Joe Biden a $12,000 lacquer writing box and pen once they met at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2013, he reportedly despatched then-President Barack Obama porcelain plates and espresso cups.
This apparently isn’t the primary portrait of a U.S. chief Putin has despatched, both. In 2014, the Russia president reportedly sent to George H.W. Bush a portrait of the previous president on his ninetieth birthday.
