Russian President Vladimir Putin has written to Donald Trump to express his hope that Moscow and Washington improve relations after the US president-elect is inaugurated on January 20.
“I hope . . . we will be able — by acting in a constructive and pragmatic manner — to take real steps to restore the framework of bilateral co-operation in different areas as well as bring our level of collaboration on the international scene to a qualitatively new level,” Mr Putin wrote to Mr Trump on December 15.
Shortly before Mr Trump released the letter on Friday, Mr Putin used his annual press conference in Moscow to suggest that he believed US-Russia relations would assume a better footing once the New York property mogul entered the White House.