Kremlin: Putin views Trump’s tweets as official statements

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks Monday at a news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey. Photo by Tumay Berkin/EPA

Dec. 12 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin receives regular reports about tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump — and views them as official statements, a Kremlin spokesman said Tuesday.

“Moscow considers all statements made on [Trump’s] official Twitter account to be official, so reports are presented to President Putin about them, as well as about official statements that politicians make in other countries,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday.

Peskov declined to address Trump’s tweets, saying, “I do not think I have the right to comment on President Trump’s actions, it would be a wrong thing to do.” He added that Putin does not have a Twitter account.

“He explained earlier that he did not have a wish to do that and he did not consider it possible for someone else to do it for him, including members of his press service and other departments of the Kremlin administration,” Peskov said.

few official accounts are dedicated to Putin and the office of Russian president. The Kremlin has two verified accounts — one in English and one in Russian, but they don’t follow Trump’s personal account.

Some of the pages the Kremlin follows are the White House, former President Barack Obama, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Argentine President Cristina de Kirchner, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the European Union Council and British Prime Minister Theresa May’s official account.

Peskov’s remarks came after Putin took a three-nation tour of Turkey, Syria and Egypt. Accompanied by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria Monday, Putin declared victory and ordered the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Early next year in Sochi, Russia plans to hold a conference of the Syrian government and opposition groups to agree on the framework for a peace settlement — including a new constitution to be endorsed at United Nations-chaired talks in Geneva.

The International Monetary Fund estimates reconstruction costs from Syria’s civil war at about $200 billion.

“It’s a simplistic approach when some Western countries say that they’ll give money only when they see that the opposition comes to power or their interests are fully accommodated,” Alexander Lavrentiev, the Russian official in charge of Syria’s peace process, said in a interview with Bloomberg.

“It’s not all about the U.S., France or Great Britain,” he added. “There are Russia, Iran, China, India and many other countries.”

The United States has vigorously opposed any solution that leaves Assad in power, but Lavrentiev said he should be allowed to run for re-election.

“I don’t see why he shouldn’t or wouldn’t run for another presidential term,” Lavrentiev said. “This is entirely up to him.”

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