Kremlin calls US decision to check Putin's gift ball predictable

The decision of the US intelligence services to check for "bugs" the soccer ball, which Russian President Vladimir Putin gave to the then incumbent US President Donald Trump in 2018, was predictable. This was stated on November 17 by Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov in the program "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin."

During the leaders' joint press conference in Helsinki in the summer of 2018, Putin presented Trump with the official World Cup ball in Russia.

"Not the first year at that time already worked with the Americans and knew that this would be the case," Peskov commented on the close inspection of the gift by the United States Secret Service.

Earlier in the day, the Kremlin spokesman said that talks between Putin and US leader-elect Donald Trump could take place when the need arises on both sides, at the moment "there are no signals".

Prior to that, on November 13, Peskov reported that there have been no requests for a conversation with Putin from the Republican's team yet.

Putin, in turn, on November 7 during a plenary session of the Valdai Club congratulated Trump on his victory in the US presidential election. He noted that the Republican's words about his intentions to promote a diplomatic settlement of the Ukrainian conflict and restore relations between Washington and Moscow deserve attention.