A phone call that The Washington Post said took place between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin may be the latest diplomatically unconventional conversation that has taken place between the pair, although the Kremlin denied on Monday that they had spoken.
Trump has said that he had spoken to about 70 world leaders since his election win, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a call in which Elon Musk was also present.
Citing "several people familiar with the matter," the Post reported Sunday that among the other world leaders he had spoken with was the Russian president, in the first phone conversation between the pair since the Republican won the election. It said Trump told Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington's military presence in Europe.
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, "there was no conversation," between the pair according to state media outlet Tass, adding, "this is completely untrue, this is pure fiction."
Newsweek has contacted The Washington Post and the Trump team for comment. Newsweek has not independently verified the outlet's reporting.
The Post said that Trump's initial calls with world leaders since his election victory are not being conducted with the support of the State Department and U.S. government interpreters because Trump's transition team has not yet signed an agreement with the General Services Administration.
The details in the Post's report about Trump's alleged conversation with Putin point to the latest unusual diplomatic protocol step between the politicians.
In November 2019, Trump held a meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires without a translator or an aide from his administration present, according to the Financial Times.
Trump was with his wife Melania Trump but no staff, while Putin was flanked by his translator, the FT reported. Trump's aides described the meeting as among several "informal" conversations that the then-U.S. president had with counterparts, according to the newspaper.
At the time, the White House confirmed a brief encounter had occurred and a Russian government official said that the leaders spoke about foreign policy issues.
The latest book by renowned journalist Bob Woodward, War, said that the pair continued to interact after the Republican left office and had seven conversations since 2021. The Trump team rejected Woodward's accounts as "made-up stories."
However, Tass reported that the last conversation between the pair, which is reported on the Kremlin's website, took place in July 2020.
The alleged latest conversation between Trump and Putin comes amid speculation over what the Republican's approach will be to the war in Ukraine, given his disdain for continued American military support for Kyiv and repeated insistences that he can end the war started by the Russian president within 24 hours.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that one plan by the Trump team to end hostilities includes a buffer zone, freezing the conflict, Russia retaining currently held territory, and deferring Ukraine's NATO membership for two decades. The buffer zone would not involved American troops, the publication said, citing unnamed sources.
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