"No, that's not true," Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the specific claim.
The book "War" by famed reporter Bob Woodward says Trump maintained a personal relationship with Putin even as he campaigned for a new term.
Woodward quotes an unnamed Trump adviser who points out that the two may have spoken as many as seven times since 2021 - despite U.S. efforts to help Ukraine withstand a full-scale attack by Russia.
In excerpts from the book published by the Washington Post, Woodward reports that Trump, while he was still president, secretly sent Putin Candid-19 test kits despite a shortage in the U.S. during the pandemic.
Russia also criticized comments by Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the White House, about Putin, saying they revealed "anger and frustration" in Washington.
In an interview on October 7th , Harris said that if elected president, she would not meet with Putin for peace talks unless Ukraine was also present.
She also repeated her criticism of Trump's policies on Ukraine, describing them as a "capitulation" to Moscow.
"If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting quietly in Kiev right now," she said in an interview with CBS.
The Russian Embassy in Washington criticized Harris's "recent unacceptable statements" without specifying which ones they were.
It said that Harris's comments show "the frustration and powerlessness of the ruling circles in Washington."| BGNES
