Vladimir Putin has taken a thinly-veiled swipe at the USA as the nation gears up to celebrate its Independence Day on July 4. The Russian President couldn’t resist pointing out that he considers Russia to have played a key role in helping the much younger country achieve statehood during a call with his American counterpart on Thursday. Putin said: “Russia played an important role in the formation of American statehood, including through the War of Independence 250 years ago, and then during the Civil War, which ended 160 years ago.”
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov added: “Of course, he congratulated Trump on the national holiday of the United States, celebrated tomorrow … It was stated that our countries are linked not only by the alliance in the First and Second World Wars, but also by deepr historical roots.” Russia described the conversation between the two leaders, the sixth publicly acknowledged call since Trump returned to the White House, as “frank, businesslike and concrete” and said they had agreed to keep communication lines open.
Among the wide range of topics covered in the hour-long conversation were ongoing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, recent airstrikes between Iran and Israel and Syria, according to Ushakov.
Reports suggest they did not discuss a recent US pause on shipment of weapons including air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery to Ukraine, amid a global Pentagon review of US military stockpiles.
Ushakov also said Putin made it clear during the call that Ukraine peace talks should be “between Moscow and Kyiv” and warned that his country “will not step back from its goals”.
“Our president said that Russia will achieve the goals it has set: that is, the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, to the current acute confronation, and Russia will not back down from these goals,” he added.
The Kremlin has claimed that it had no choice but to invade Ukraine to prevent the country from joining NATO and being used by the western alliance as a means of invading Russia.
On the topic of Iran, the Kremlin spokesperson said Putin “emphasised the importance of resolving all disputes, disagreements and conflict situations exclusively by political and diplomatic means”.
The last known phone call between Trump and Putin was on June 14, the day after Israel attacked Iran.
Putin also spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, marking the first direct communication between the two leaders in almost three years.