Today, about an hour after Russian President Vladimir Putin offered that he might call U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Trump indicated to NBC News that the two of them would speak. Asked about talking with Putin, Trump said that he had talked with “probably” 70 world leaders since his victory, but not yet with Putin—at which point he added, “I think we’ll speak.”
Putin had made a one-hour speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, in which he praised Western civilization and damned how far Western politicians had strayed from their heritage. He then sat for questions from the audience for three more hours. During his extemporaneous responses, Putin said of Trump that he wished to “offer my congratulations on his election as President of the United States. I have already said that I will work with any head of state the American people trust. This will indeed be the case in practice” Asked about accepting a call from Trump before the inauguration, he said that he is open to a phone call with the President-elect. He replied to the question that, “It wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself.”
Putin went on to say that we “see him as a capable leader” and that he deserves credit for fighting for his political career while being put under “unfair scrutiny.” He hoped that Trump would not adopt the “anti-Russian” stance of the previous administration and, rather, follow a “more constructive” path. He offered that he takes Trump’s statements on the Ukraine conflict seriously and that his proposals “deserve attention, at the very least.”
