Former President Donald Trump sent coronavirus testing equipment to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the height of the pandemic, the Kremlin confirmed Wednesday.
“We sent equipment even at the beginning of the pandemic,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Bloomberg News in a written statement.
The story was first reported in veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s new book, "War," about President Trump and President Joe Biden’s relationships with foreign leaders.
The book alleges that President Trump secretly sent Abbott coronavirus testing equipment to President Putin when testing equipment was in short supply. NBC News has not been able to independently verify this.
Peskov also denied Woodward’s claim that Trump and Putin had several telephone conversations after Trump left office. “No, that’s not true,” he told Russian broadcaster RBC.
President Trump also denied the report in an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. “He’s a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles,” President Trump said of Woodward.
In a separate statement to Bloomberg, President Trump’s reelection team accused journalists of bias and said “none of these fabricated stories by Bob Woodward are true.”
The book, scheduled to be published on October 15, raises questions about how President Trump will deal with the war in Ukraine and continue aid to the country if he is re-elected.
President Trump has repeatedly said that if re-elected president, he could resolve the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day. However, when Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia was asked about this claim in July, he told reporters: “The Ukraine crisis cannot be resolved in a day.”
The Republican candidate said last month that his relationship with Putin is “very good.” He said as much about his relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy when the two met at Trump Tower last month.
As a private citizen, Mr. Trump would need the explicit permission of the sitting president to negotiate on behalf of the U.S. government.
Woodward wrote in his book that senior adviser Jason Miller said in July that he was “not aware” of the conversation between Trump and Putin, but that if they wanted to talk, “they knew how to contact each other.” He said that he told him, “I’m going to die.” ”
Trump’s critics have long taken issue with his friendly relations with authoritarian leaders, including President Putin. President Trump called President Putin a “very intelligent” and “strong man” and praised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “genius.”
Catherine Doyle also contributed.
