Putin gifted a portrait of Trump to the US president

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Putin gifted a portrait of Trump to the US president

2025-03-25 08:32 Last Updated At：08:41

The Kremlin confirmed Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted to Donald Trump a portrait he commissioned of the U.S. president.

Putin gave the painting to Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in Moscow earlier this month, the Russian president's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said in a response to a journalist's question, declining further comment.

The gift was first mentioned last week by Witkoff in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Witkoff told Carlson that Trump “was clearly touched” by the portrait, which he described as "beautiful.”

Witkoff met Putin after talks with Russian officials about trying to end the war in Ukraine. Ceasefire talks continued Monday in Saudi Arabia, where U.S. officials met their Russian counterparts, a day after meeting with Ukrainian negotiators.

During his interview with Carlson, Witkoff described Putin’s gift as “gracious” and recalled how Putin told him he had prayed for Trump last year when he heard the then-candidate for the U.S. presidency had been shot at a rally in Pennsylvania. “He was praying for his friend,” Witkoff said, recounting Putin's comments.

In 2018, Putin gave then-President Trump a soccer ball that the Secret Service had checked for listening devices before Trump gave it to his son — a precaution that hearkened back to a Soviet-era gift to a U.S. diplomat that turned out to be bugged.

In 1945, a carving of the Great Seal of the United States was given as a gift from Soviet school children to then-U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman. It hung in his office for six years allowing the Soviet Union to eavesdrop on his conversations until the State Department discovered that it contained a covert listening device.

It was not immediately known if the portrait Putin gave to Trump had been examined for bugs. The White House hasn't commented on the portrait.

Trump isn't the first sitting president to receive a gift from Putin. In 2021, Putin gave then-President Joe Biden a $12,000 lacquer writing box and pen when they met at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2013, he reportedly sent then-President Barack Obama porcelain plates and espresso cups.

This apparently isn't the first portrait of a U.S. leader Putin has sent, either. In 2014, the Russia president reportedly sent to George H.W. Bush a portrait of the former president on his 90th birthday.

Macron says a proposed European force for Ukraine could 'respond' if attacked by Russia

2025-03-27 03:54 Last Updated At：04:01

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that a proposed European armed force for possible deployment in Ukraine in tandem with an eventual peace deal could “respond” to a Russian attack if Moscow launched one.

Macron spoke in the evening after talks with Ukraine’s president and ahead of a summit in Paris of some 30 nations on Thursday that will discuss the proposed force for Ukraine.

“If there was again a generalized aggression against Ukrainian soil, these armies would be under attack and then it’s our usual framework of engagement,” Macron said. “Our soldiers, when they are engaged and deployed, are there to react and respond to the decisions of the commander in chief and, if they are in a conflict situation, to respond to it.”

Macron. has been driving coalition-building efforts for a Ukraine force with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. it is still far from clear exactly what kind of aid they are preparing that could contribute toward their goal of making any ceasefire with Russia lasting.

Macron is expecting 31 delegations around the table Thursday morning at the presidential Elysee Palace. That's more than Macron gathered for a first meeting in Paris in February — evidence that the coalition to help Ukraine, possibly with boots on the ground, is gathering steam, according to the presidential office.

The big elephant in the room will be the country that's missing: the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has shown no public enthusiasm for the coalition's discussions about potentially sending troops into Ukraine after an eventual ceasefire to help make peace stick. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has dismissed the idea of a European deployment or even the need for it.

“It's a combination of a posture and a pose and a combination of also being simplistic,” he said in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

That's not the view in Europe. The shared premise upon which the coalition is being built is that Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine — starting with the illegal seizure of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and culminating in the 2022 full-scale invasion that unleashed all-out war — shows that he cannot be trusted.

They believe that any peace deal will need to be backed up by security guarantees for Ukraine, to deter Putin from launching another attempt to seize it.