(CNN) – Russia confirmed that Donald Trump sent Covid-19 test samples to the Kremlin in the early days of the pandemic, after revelations in veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book raised more questions about the former US president’s relationship with the Russian leader. Vladimir Putin.
The Trump administration “sent us several samples of test kits,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday, backing Woodward’s claim. His intervention comes after Trump denied the claims, telling ABC News they were “false.”
Legendary reporter Woodward wrote in “War” that Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid tests for his personal use.”
“Please don’t tell anyone you sent them to me,” Putin told Trump, according to Woodward. “I don’t care,” Trump responded. “Good”.
“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anyone because people will be mad at you, not me. “They don’t care about me.”
Peskov did not confirm whether those tests were specifically for Putin’s own use, as Woodward writes.
The Kremlin press secretary said: “At that time, the pandemic was just beginning and the situation was very difficult for all countries.”
He added: “Of course, initially, all countries tried to exchange aid shipments with each other,” he continued. “At that time, we made a shipment of respirators to the United States, and the Americans sent us several samples of test kits, since they were practically unique items. Many countries were doing the same.”
The Kremlin’s response apparently contradicts Trump’s denial of Woodward’s claims.
“He is a storyteller. A bad narrator. And he’s lost his mind,” Trump told ABC News about Woodward on Tuesday. In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Trump gave Woodward “absolutely no access” to the book. “None of these stories made up by Bob Woodward are true,” he said.
Citing a Trump aide, Woodward also reported that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021. Peskov denied those claims, saying, “That’s not true; “It didn’t happen.” Trump also denied those claims to ABC News.
The frenetic first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a diplomatic opening for Putin. The Trump White House was criticized at the time for purchasing medical supplies from Moscow, a move that was described by experts as a propaganda victory for the Kremlin.
The Trump administration also spent $200 million shipping thousands of ventilators around the world, starting weeks after the former president touted the United States as the “king of ventilators,” but with no established way to locate them, the study found. Government Accountability Office in a report. Russia was among the countries that received those respirators.
Woodward’s claims once again call into question Trump’s relationship with Putin, weeks before the US presidential election.
Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris quickly seized on these comments, saying in an interview with Howard Stern: “People were dying by the hundreds. Everyone was rushing to get these (test) kits… and this guy who was president of the United States is sending them to Russia? To a murderous dictator, for his personal use?
“He’s misleading them,” Harris said of Trump.
Trump, for his part, has continued to speak fondly of his relationship with Putin, whose February 2022 invasion of Ukraine made him a pariah among Western leaders.
“I got along well with him. I hope to get along with him again,” Trump said during an interview on X with billionaire Elon Musk. Trump added that getting along with autocratic world leaders “is a good thing.”
CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb, Elizabeth Stuart and Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this report.
