Putin gifted portrait of Trump to US president
Vladimir Putin gave the painting to Donald Trump’s special envoy in Moscow earlier this month, the Russian president’s spokesperson said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted to Donald Trump a portrait he commissioned of the US president, the Kremlin confirmed.
Mr Putin gave the painting to Mr Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in Moscow earlier this month, the Russian president’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a response to a journalist’s question, declining further comment.
The gift was first mentioned last week by Mr Witkoff in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Mr Witkoff met Mr Putin after talks with Russian officials about trying to end the war in Ukraine.
Ceasefire talks continued on Monday in Saudi Arabia, where US officials met their Russian counterparts, a day after meeting with Ukrainian negotiators.
During his interview with Carlson, Mr Witkoff described Mr Putin’s gift as “gracious” and recalled how Mr Putin told him he had prayed for Mr Trump last year when he heard the then-candidate for the US presidency had been shot at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“He was praying for his friend,” Mr Witkoff said, recounting Mr Putin’s comments.
In 2018, Mr Putin gave then-president Mr Trump a football that the Secret Service had checked for listening devices before Mr Trump gave it to his son – a precaution that hearkened back to a Soviet-era gift to a US diplomat that turned out to be bugged.
In 1945, a carving of the Great Seal of the United States was given as a gift from Soviet schoolchildren to then-US ambassador Averell Harriman.
It hung in his office for six years allowing the Soviet Union to eavesdrop on his conversations until the State Department discovered that it contained a covert listening device.
The White House has not commented on the portrait.
Mr Trump is not the first sitting president to receive a gift from Mr Putin.
In 2021, Mr Putin gave then-president Joe Biden a 12,000 dollar lacquer writing box and pen when they met at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 2013, he reportedly sent then-president Barack Obama porcelain plates and espresso cups.
This apparently is not the first portrait of a US leader Mr Putin has sent.
In 2014, the Russia president reportedly sent to George HW Bush a portrait of the former president on his 90th birthday.
