Kremlin responds to reports that Donald Trump called Putin seven times

The Kremlin has denied claims that Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin several times after he left the White House.

The comments from Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov follow claims in the latest book The Washington Post Journalist Bob Woodward on a lasting relationship between the former US president and the Russian leader.

Woodward quotes an unnamed Trump adviser as suggesting that this year’s Republican presidential nominee may have spoken to Putin up to seven times since leaving the White House in 2021.

The book War, The document, released on October 15, claims that Trump summoned an aide from his office at his Mar-a-Lago residence in early 2024 to have a private conversation with Putin, although the details of the alleged conversation were not disclosed.

The adviser did not provide further details and Woodward said in the book, excerpts of which were published by media outlets, that he could not substantiate the claim with other sources.

Asked about the claims, Peskov replied, “No, that’s not true,” although he confirmed another claim in the book that Trump sent COVID testing equipment to Moscow at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Putin isolated himself during the pandemic, and images of him meeting officials at a long table raised questions about his fears of infection. Woodward said in the book that the Russian leader had instructed Trump in a phone call to keep the delivery of the Abbott machines secret, to which the US president allegedly agreed.

“We also broadcast [to the United States] equipment [to fight COVID] at the beginning of the pandemic,” Peskov told Russian state media on Wednesday, “but as far as telephone conversations are concerned, that’s not true.”

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, the Newsweek has contacted for comment, previously said Newsweek that “none of these fabricated Bob Woodward stories are true and are the work of a truly insane and deranged man suffering 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 were unaware of any contacts between the Russian leader and the former U.S. president since Trump left office, although several said this is not unthinkable.

The times noted that previous presidents often speak with foreign leaders, but that it would be “highly unusual” to speak with such an adversary waging war without the approval of the White House or State Department.

When he was in the White House, Trump’s relationship with Putin came under scrutiny, and during the campaign the Republican presidential candidate refused to say that Ukraine should win the war that the Russian leader had started.