Pure fiction, completely untrue: Russia denies Trump-Putin conversation

MOSCOW: Russia on Monday denied US media reports which claimed that the US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have spoken over phone after the former's win in the presidential election, last week.

"There was no conversation... This is completely untrue, it is pure fiction," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow during a daily media briefing.

The Russian President's Press Secretary also questioned the credibility of the US media publications that had published reports of the alleged conversation between the two leaders, earlier in the day.

"(Shows) The most obvious example of the quality of the information that is now being published, sometimes even in fairly respected publications," Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia's Tass news agency.

A leading US media publication reported late Sunday that Trump had dialled Putin from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in what was his first call to the Russian leader following the decisive electoral victory over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

The report mentioned that Trump had urged Putin to avoid any escalation in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

It also added that, during the conversation, Trump expressed an interest in fostering further discussions with Moscow to de-escalate tensions and resolve the war that began in February 2022.

The report detailed that Trump highlighted the significance of the substantial US military presence in Europe, suggesting that he intends to bring American influence to bear on the resolution of the Ukraine conflict.

It is to be recalled that the Republican leader had made "ending the war" a key promise during his election campaign.

Meanwhile, Kyiv has also made it clear that it had no prior intimation about the Trump-Putin phone call.