by RT News Staff at RT.com
Speaking at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Thursday, Putin said that he wished to “offer my congratulations on [Trump’s] election as president of the United States.”
Putin noted that Trump has expressed a desire to end the Ukraine conflict, and that such statements “deserve attention, at the very least.”
The Russian president then paid tribute to Trump’s actions during an attempt on his life in Pennsylvania this summer, when then-candidate Trump rose to his feet and raised his fist after a bullet grazed his ear.
“I was impressed. He’s a courageous person,” Putin said. “A person shows their true color in these emergencies, and I think he acquitted himself admirably and in a valiant fashion as a man.”
Hours earlier, the Kremlin denied reports that Putin had sent a private congratulatory message to Trump, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that the US is “an unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in the war against us.”
However, Putin said that he is open to receiving a phone call from Trump, adding that “it wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself.”
Trump has repeatedly promised to bring the Ukraine conflict to a swift end, although…