Russian President Vladimir Putin flattered President Donald Trump at Friday’s press conference in Alaska, saying “he is quite sure” that there would have been no war in Ukraine had Trump been president in 2022.
Putin thanked Trump at the presser, which took place after their meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, for the “well-wishing and trustworthy tone of [their] conversation.
Read a snippet of MSNBC’s translation from Russian below.
I would like to thank President Trump for our joint work, for the well-wishing and trustworthy tone of our conversation. It’s important that both sides are result-oriented, and we see that the President of the U.S. has a very clear idea of what he would like to achieve. He sincerly cares about the prosperity of his nation. Still, he understands that Russia has its own national interests.I expect that today’s agreements will be the starting point, not only for the solution of the Ukranian issue, but will also help us bring back business-like and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S.In the end, I would like to add one more thing. I’d like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities. And I said it quite directly
back then, that it’s a big mistake. Today, when President Trump said that if he was the president back then, there would be no war. And I’m quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.