INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Kremlin on Thursday confirmed claims that then-United States President Donald Trump sent Russian President Vladimir Putin Covid tests
but said it was part of an international exchange at the start of the pandemic.United States journalist Bob Woodward wrote in a book,
"War," published Tuesday, that Trump secretly sent Covid test kits to Putin despite a United States shortage during the pandemic, and that
Trump spoke multiple times with the Russian leader after leaving office.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that "the first
tests worked badly and at first there was not enough equipment..
all countries tried to somehow exchange between themselves
We sent a supply of ventilator units to the United States , they sent these tests to us."Peskov said that this occurred "when the pandemic
was starting," saying of the tests that "at the time, these were rare items."With the coronavirus raging in 2020, Trump sent a batch of
coveted tests to his counterpart in Moscow
Putin accepted the supplies but sought to avoid political fallout for Trump, urging he not reveal the dispatch of medical equipment, the
book says.According to Woodward, Putin told Trump: "I don't want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me."Woodward
effort to help Ukraine resist Russia's full-scale assault.The Kremlin spokesman denied this, however."But as for the calls, that's not
