Vladimir Putin has caused yet more confusion after revealing more of his bizarre views about the US and Russia.
The Russian president had his first meeting with representatives from international news agencies since he invaded Ukraine on Wednesday – and he made several bewildering claims....
Putin and Biden’s letters
Putin mentioned a letter from US president Joe Biden when speaking to US reporter on Wednesday, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
He said that the West had the chance to stop the fighting in Ukraine at one point, but did not take it – and claimed he once wrote to Biden, saying hostilities could have ended in a matter of months if the US stopped sending weapons to Kyiv.
But, Putin did not mention any dates of when this conversation happened, according to TASS.
Putin and Biden are thought not to have spoken over the phone since February 12, 2022, and only had one face-to-face meeting as presidents in June 2021, Switzerland.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, also told reporters on Thursday: “We will never publish correspondence at the level of heads of states.”
The Russian imperial flag
More than two years since invading Ukraine, Putin told reporters on Wednesday that Moscow has no imperial desires – even though the flag of the Russian Empire was raised on the very building where the meeting was taking place.
He told the press: “I can tell you that it was not a political decision on the part of the government, or the presidential administration.
“This decision was made by Gazprom.”
Gazprom is a Russian gas company owned by the state.
The authoritarian president claimed the company’s CEO Alexey Miller told him about this decision ahead of time, because the flags were “a part of history.”
Putin said: “I decided not to obstruct this, because everything happens for a reason. This is it. No need to look for any underlying connotations, for any sort of imperial ambitions in this regard. There are none.”
Yet, at the same meeting, he was quick to accuse the US of having its own imperial ambitions.
He said: “Today’s [US] leadership wants to maintain its imperial position at all costs and only harms itself.”
Putin’s theory on the US’s view of Zelenskyy
He even alleged the US want looking to replace Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the spring of 2025.
He claimed: “I feel, it will take a year, until the spring, until the beginning of next year at the very least, he [Zelenskyy] will be tolerated. When he is done, they will say: ‘Goodbye’.”
Putin has repeatedly accused of the Ukrainian president of not being a legitimate leader because he has delayed the country’s elections due to the war.
“There is a law that defines the martial law status,” Putin told reporters on Wednesday. “It says that powers are transferred to the parliament and that presidential elections are not held as long as the martial law is in force.
“But it does not say the presidential powers should be extended.”
Russian presidential elections were held earlier this year, and Putin won his fifth term in office comfortably.
However, it has been widely written off as a sham election after voters in Russia and occupied Ukraine were coerced into voting for Putin.