Putin’s press secretary speaks of Russian President’s unofficial contacts with Poroshenko
A number of President Vladimir Putin’s meetings and contacts, even with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, are not of a non-public nature, stated Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov on the program “Actors with Nailya Asker-Zade” which was broadcast on Rossiya 1 on Sunday.
According to Peskov, the president’s “intense workday” is not limited to the “dozens” of meetings, press conferences and talks which end up in the media.
“It is much more intense and thoughtful than can be seen on TV. And so there are actually meetings which we do not inform the mass media about,” Peskov responded when asked whether there was any contact between Putin and Poroshenko which the Presidential Administration may not have told the press about, as in 2016.
Peskov noted that, “as a rule”, Putin’s non-public contact does not include US President Donald Trump, and that all of the two presidents’ phone calls have been reflected in the news releases.
Later Peskov clarified to TASS that he had not been talking about contact between Putin and Poroshenko specifically. “Nobody said anything about any meetings. In the interview I didn’t say that there were any meetings,” he clarified.
Earlier former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili spoke about a New Year’s phone call between Putin and Poroshenko, citing his own sources. “As far as I understand, during this phone call, alongside the matter of a prisoner exchange, my matter was discussed too. Collaboration on a presidential level against me,” Saakashvili claimed.