A Trump-Putin deal in Ukraine could spark further conflict and have a catastrophic impact on the global economy, experts told Business insider.
With only a month to go before the presidential election, Donald Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again come under the spotlight.
In a forthcoming book, journalist Bob Woodward says that the former president and Putin have a closer friendship than previously known.
According to excerpts published by CNN and the on Tuesday, Trump sent Putin COVID testing devices in early 2020 for his personal use.
The book also says that Trump may have had up to seven phone calls with Putin since leaving office in 2021, citing a Trump aide.
The Trump campaign denied the report, with spokesman Steve Cheung claiming it is «the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.»
The Kremlin on Tuesday said that Russia received the COVID-19 testing kits, though added that Russia sent kits to the US in return. It denied the seven calls that Woodward said Trump had with Putin.
While speculation and criticism about Trump’s relationship with Russia’s autocratic leader are nothing new, they are taking on a new significance amid the possibility of a second Trump presidency.The Trump-Putin relationship
Only weeks before Trump took office after his presidential victory, his administration-in-waiting was rocked by the publication of a dossier prepared by a former British spy.
The report said that the Kremlin had secured compromising information that it could use to blackmail Trump.
Trump’s legal team said the dossier contained inaccurate information and that it breached his data protection rights.
A subsequent inquiry by Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of coordination between Putin and the Trump campaign.
Throughout his presidency, however, Trump appeared friendly toward Putin and was reluctant to criticize Russia over reports of interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
Trump has continued to praise Putin for being «smart» and «genius» after he began his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
«I’d say that’s pretty smart. He’s taking over a country – really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in», Trump said in 2022.A Ukraine deal
The US, under President Joe Biden, has provided billions in aid to Ukraine to battle the invasion launched by Russia in 2022, which the president has characterized as a fight between the forces of democracy and tyranny.
Yet Trump has questioned why the US is helping Ukraine defend itself and had urged Republicans in Congress to block a Ukraine aid bill earlier this year, resulting in Ukraine suffering ammunition shortages.
