Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected claims that he deliberately avoids talking with Western leaders, insisting that Moscow remains open to negotiations.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Kazan on Thursday, Putin stated that Moscow “never shunned contacts.”
“When we hear… that I avoid talking to some European leaders, let me tell you: that is a lie,” he said.
“We did not reject and are not rejecting anything. If somebody wants to renew relations with us, they are welcome. We reiterated that, but we do not impose ourselves,” Putin added.
The remarks came in response to a question on whether the Russian leader missed talking to his Western counterparts and was feeling isolated.
Most contact between the West and Russia was cut following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The US and its allies have touted this as evidence that Moscow is “isolated” internationally over its role in the hostilities.
Some Western leaders have expressed willingness to engage diplomatically with Russia and Putin personally, including French President Emmanuel Macron last year and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earlier this month.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a noted critic of the Western approach to Russia, has dissented from the informal boycott. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has adopted a mediation role during the crisis, represented his nation at the BRICS Summit in Kazan, the only NATO member to do so. The event was also attended by senior officials from dozens of other countries.
The issue of contact with Putin has also been raised during the ongoing US presidential campaign. A book by American journalist Bob Woodward that hit the shelves this month alleged that former President Donald Trump secretly had multiple private phone calls with the Russian leader after leaving office. Putin and the Republican candidate himself have denied the claims.
Trump has alleged on the campaign trail that he at one point threatened to strike Moscow during talks with Putin regarding the Ukraine conflict. The Russian president said on Thursday that he did not recall such a conversation, and suggested that claims of his supposed contact with Trump were merely part of the discredited ‘Russiagate’ narrative.
After winning the 2016 election, Trump was accused of having “colluded” with Moscow to achieve victory, although a lengthy probe by US special counsel Robert Mueller failed to produce evidence of any such a scheme.