BURSTRussian President Vladimir Putin gave U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff a portrait of President Trump to deliver to the U.S. president as a gift, the Kremlin confirmed on Monday.
Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin gave the painting to Witkoff when he was in Moscow earlier this month, when asked by a journalist about reports of the painting. Peskov declined to comment further.
Witkoff — who has visited Russia twice as the U.S. seeks to negotiate an end to the war with Ukraine — first mentioned the portrait last week in a podcast interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson.
“In the second visit that I had, it got personal,” Witkoff told Carlson in the interview. “The president, President Putin, had commissioned a beautiful portrait of President Trump from the leading Russian artist and actually gave it to me and asked me to take it home to President Trump, which I brought home and delivered to him.”
“It was such a gracious moment," Witkoff added.
Witkoff also said in the interview that Putin prayed for Trump after the U.S. president was targeted in an assassination attempt last year on the campaign trail.
“When the president was shot, he [Putin] went to his local church and met with his priest and prayed for the president,” Witkoff said, adding, “He was praying for his friend.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
The Associated Press contributed.