The Kremlin has confirmed that former US President Donald Trump sent Covid-19 testing devices to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his tenure at the height of the pandemic, as described in a new book by journalist Bob Woodward, UNN reports citing Bloomberg.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the tests had been sent, but denied the book's claim that the two leaders spoke by phone several times after Trump left office.
"We also sent equipment at the beginning of the pandemic," Peskov said in a written response to questions about the book. "But it's not true about the phone calls.
According to media reports, a book by a prominent Watergate journalist says that Trump, as president in 2020, secretly sent Abbott Covid testing machines to Putin when there were few devices, CNN reports.
Earlier on Tuesday, in a statement, Trump's campaign denied the allegations, saying that "none of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true" and accused the journalist of bias.
Let's add
The newspaper notes that Trump has long boasted about his relationship with Putin, in particular, claiming that he could end Russia's war against Ukraine if he is elected to the White House again, without specifying how he would achieve this.
The former president criticized Biden over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Israel's war with Hamas in the Middle East, saying that this would not have happened if the Republican were still in office.