For the first time in five years, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his American counterpart congratulations on the United States' Independence Day.
The last time Putin sent such a message was in July 2020, and then Donald Trump was also a resident of the White House.
As the Russian presidential adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said in a statement related to this issue, Putin personally congratulated Trump on the US national holiday in a telephone conversation that took place the day before, on July 3. In this conversation, Putin reportedly recalled Russia's contribution to establishing American independence, as well as the historical cooperation between the two countries.
This is not the first time the Russian president has sent Donald Trump a July 4th greeting. In 2020, Putin sent the then-US president a congratulatory telegram, as confirmed at the time by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The practice followed a long tradition of sending messages of congratulations on American Independence Day to the respective occupants of the White House.
However, during Joe Biden's presidency, the Kremlin did not send any public congratulations on the American national holiday. On the contrary, in previous decades, congratulatory messages to Washington were a constant practice: from Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to Barack Obama, all American presidents received the greetings set by Moscow.