Putin's Spokesman: The NYT Are Fairy-Tale Tellers

Commenting on the recent Putin-Trump meeting, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that The New York Times could not possibly know what had been said at the meeting and that the newspaper was telling fairy tales in order to prevent the Russophobic wave in the U.S. from subsiding.

Dmitri Peskov: "If we talk about the bilateral meeting between Putin and Trump, it is quite understandable that there were some extremely emotional high expectations. Some analysts expected them to resolve world problems at the meeting, and others probably expected a breakthrough in the relations. Of course this was not the case. Everyone was awaiting the meeting, expecting that it would restore the natural flow of things. The thing is that after a couple of phone conversations took place, there was no hint of any [upcoming] personal meeting between the two, which is unnatural given the tremendous amount of world problems facing our countries. Given this state of affairs, when Washington is overwhelmed by a "schizophrenic anti-Russian wave" – which, let me remind you, is the way President Putin phrased it – the absence of any prospect of a personal meeting just made the situation worse."

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Interviewer: "The New York Times wrote – and I found this funny – that they had talked for 40 minutes about [Russia's] meddling in the elections, until Putin raised his voice. Since I have some familiarity with the way Vladimir Putin talks, I allow myself to doubt this. I don't believe that anything would cause Putin to raise his voice or lose his temper.

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"Were they both satisfied [with the meeting]? You know President [Putin] well. You have worked with him for years. How do you read him? Was Putin disappointed with Trump?"

Dmitri Peskov: "I can definitely say that Putin was pleased. Frankly, I don't know President Trump at all, but I think that he too was satisfied with the meeting.

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"All this speculation in the article in The New York Times that you mentioned is absurd. I repeat, there were only two people at that meeting, so how could The New York Times possibly know for how many minutes they met, what exactly they discussed, and who raised his voice and when, if at all? All this vividly demonstrates that there are fairy-tale tellers sitting in [the NYT], who do everything possible to prevent this Russophobic wave from subsiding."