The Kremlin has rejected claims that Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin several times following his departure from the White House.
The comments by Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov follow allegations made in the latest book by The Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward about an enduring relationship between the former U.S. president and the Russian leader.
Woodward cites an unnamed Trump aide who indicated this year’s Republican presidential candidate may have spoken to Putin up to seven times since leaving the White House in 2021.
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The book War, which is released on October 15, claims how in early 2024, Trump ordered an aide out of his office in his Mar-a-Lago residence to take a private call with Putin, although the details of the alleged conversation were not revealed.
The aide offered no further details and Woodward said in the book, whose excerpts have been published by media outlets, that he could not corroborate the claim with other sources.
When asked about the claims, Peskov replied, “no this is not true,” although he did confirm another of the book’s claims that at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump sent COVID testing equipment to Moscow.
During the pandemic, Putin isolated himself and images of him meeting officials at a long table raised questions about his fears of catching the disease. Woodward said in the book the Russian leader had told Trump on a phone call to keep the delivery of the Abbott machines quiet, which the U.S. president allegedly agreed to do.
“We also sent [to the United States] equipment [to fight COVID] at the beginning of the pandemic,” Peskov told Russian state media on Wednesday, “but as for phone calls, this is not true.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, whom Newsweek has contacted for comment, previously told Newsweek that “none of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The New York Times said the 20 current and former Trump and Biden administration officials and career intelligence officials it contacted had no knowledge of any contacts between the Russian leader and former U.S. president since Trump left office, although several said it was not inconceivable.
The Times noted how former presidents often speak with foreign leaders, but it would be “highly unusual” for one to speak with such an adversary who is conducting a war without White House or State Department clearance.
When he was in the White House, Trump’s relationship with Putin was subject to scrutiny and on the campaign trail, the Republican presidential contender has refused to say that Ukraine should win the war that the Russian leader started.
