Bildt on Witkoff's interview: Putin knows that flattery works on Trump, uses impressive arsenal

13:10, 22.03.2025 1 min read

Vladimir Putin uses flattery in his communication with US President Donald Trump, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt is convinced.

"Vladimir Putin knows that flattery works - particularly on a person like Donald Trump. And he deploys an impressive arsenal," Bildt wrote on X on Saturday morning, commenting on an interview of Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff with Tucker Carlson, which was published on Saturday night.

The European Council co-president attached a fragment of the interview to the post, in which Witkoff says that Putin ordered a portrait of Trump from a leading Russian artist and asked him to give it to the US president. In addition, Putin claims that after the assassination attempt on Trump during the election campaign, he went to church and his priest and prayed for Trump as for his friend.