Putin to Trump for New Year: Russia and U.S. Are Historically Responsible for Global Security

Dec. 31, 2019 (EIRNS)—On Dec. 30 Russian President Vladimir Putin sent U.S. President Donald Trump a New Year’s message, extending season’s greetings and confirming the invitation for Trump to attend the 75th anniversary celebrations in May 2020 of the victory over fascism in the Great Patriotic War. Putin also said that the U.S. and Russia are responsible for maintaining world security.

TASS reports, the Kremlin release on the message yesterday states: “Putin noted that Russia and the U.S. were historically responsible for ensuring global security and stability and that Moscow speaks in favor of normalizing bilateral relations and establishing an equal dialogue based on the mutual respect of interests. The President of Russia also reaffirmed his invitation to Donald Trump to visit Moscow to take part in the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.”

In further news surrounding Russia-U.S. relations, yesterday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov briefed the media that the information that the U.S. provided to Russia regarding planned terrorist attacks, was very important. He said that the information was transmitted to Russia via intelligence service channels, which was followed by a report to President Putin. Given the successful detention of the two suspects, Peskov stated, it was “more than obvious evidence” of how productive such contacts can be.

Trump similarly tweeted about his phone call with Putin: “President Putin of Russia called to thank me and the U.S. for informing them of a planned terrorist attack in the very beautiful city of Saint Petersburg. They were able to quickly apprehend the suspects, with many lives being saved. Great & important coordination!”

Peskov also told media yesterday that the U.S. did not inform Russia about its airstrikes against targets in Syria and Iraq on Dec. 29. Peskov remarked on the U.S. strikes, that “any actions aimed at eliminating terrorists are assessed positively. On the other hand, any actions that lead to the destabilization of the situation can be assessed only negatively. Such criteria are applied each time.”