BURSTRussian President Vladimir Putin said he was ready and willing to meet with President-elect Trump if he “wants it,” after four years without communication.
“What can I offer to the President-elect Trump when we meet? First of all, I don’t know when we will meet because he doesn’t say anything about it," Putin said Thursday morning during a press conference on state-sponsored television.
"I haven’t spoken to him for more than four years and I am ready for it, of course, at any time," he added. "I will be ready for a meeting if he wants it."
He added that he and Trump — who has often touted his relationship with the Russian leader — they would have "a lot to talk about."
Putin told reporters that while some in the U.S. may view Russia in a "weakened position" amid its nearly three-year-long war with Ukraine, he has a "different point of view."
"I believe that Russia has become much stronger over the past two or three years. Why? Because we are becoming a truly sovereign country," he said in the end-of-year presser. "We are no longer dependent on anyone."
Despite criticism over the war and land grab efforts, Putin said he was open to negotiations that would require compromise.
“Politics is the art of compromise. And we have always said that we are ready for both negotiations and compromises,” he said.
“It is just that the opposite side — in the literal and figurative sense of the word — refused to negotiate. And we are always ready for this," the Russian leader said. "The result of these negotiations is always compromise."
NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte has also adamantly advocated for Ukraine to involve Russia in conversations geared toward peace but suggested they do it once they're in a position of power on the battlefield.
“I would argue, let’s not have all these discussions step by step on what a peace process might look like,” Rutte said earlier this month.
“Make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to get to a position of strength when those peace talks start, when the Ukrainian government has decided they are ready to do so,” he added.
It’s unclear if Trump will agree to a sit-down with Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine ahead of his inauguration, although the president-elect has been meeting with foreign leaders in recent weeks, including inviting them to at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.