Putin pays tribute to ‘old friend’ Henry Kissinger calling him a ‘wise and farsighted statesman’ in personal telegram to his widow Nancy

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday joined the chorus of those paying tribute to Henry Kissinger following the superpower diplomat’s death at the age of 100.

Putin wrote in a telegram to Kissinger’s widow, Nancy, that the former national security adviser was a “wise and far-sighted statesman.”

“The name Henry Kissinger is inextricably linked to a pragmatic line of foreign policy, which once made it possible to achieve detente in international tensions and reach the most important Soviet-American agreements that contributed to strengthening global security,” said Putin. .

“I have often had the opportunity of personally communicating with this profound, extraordinary man, and I will undoubtedly have my fondest memory of him.”

Kissinger led a dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s that led to the first major nuclear arms control treaties between the two Cold War superpowers.

Putin wrote in a telegram to Kissinger’s widow, Nancy, that the former national security adviser was a “wise and far-sighted statesman.”

Five decades later, the war in Ukraine has brought tensions between Moscow and Washington to their most acute point since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, and the Kremlin has described the current state of affairs as “subzero.”

Politics reported in 2016 that Kissinger and Putin first met in Russia in the 1990s.

The article said the pair grew closer over the years as US-Russia relations declined. At the time of Trump’s election, Kissinger downplayed allegations of Russian hacking.

One of their first interactions involved Putin telling Kissinger, “I worked in intelligence.” He replied, “All decent people have started doing intelligence. I did that too.’

In 2017, Putin received Kissinger in the Kremlin.

What exactly the pair discussed was not publicly revealed. Kissinger was in Russia for the Primakov Readings, an annual forum of experts, diplomats and politicians.

Their meeting came a month after Kissinger met with then-President Donald Trump at the White House. A week after the meeting between Kissinger and Putin, the Russian president met with Trump in Germany.

In 2017, Kissinger met with Putin just a week before the Russian president met then-President Donald Trump for the first time

In late 2022, Kissinger said in a piece for The Spectator that Ukraine should pursue a peace deal with Russia in the wake of Putin’s invasion.

At the end of 2022, Kissinger said in a piece for The spectator that Ukraine should seek a peace deal with Russia in the wake of Putin’s invasion.

“I have repeatedly expressed my support for allied military efforts to thwart Russian aggression in Ukraine.”

“But the time is approaching to build on the strategic changes already achieved and integrate them into a new structure to achieve peace through negotiations,” he wrote.

‘The desired outcome for some is a Russia rendered powerless by the war. I do not agree.’

‘For all its propensity for violence, Russia has made a decisive contribution to the global equilibrium and to the balance of power for more than half a millennium. Its historical role should not be downgraded. Russia’s military setbacks have not eliminated its global nuclear reach, allowing it to threaten an escalation in Ukraine,” Kissinger added.

‘Mr. Kissinger still has not understood… neither the nature of this war nor its impact on world order,” Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in response.

‘The recipe that the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs asks for, but does not dare to say out loud, is simple: appease the aggressor by sacrificing parts of Ukraine with guarantees of non-aggression against the other states of Eastern Europe, ‘ he continued.

Kissinger said last June Bloomberg in an interview that it would be “unlikely” that Putin would remain in power if he were forced into peace negotiations with Ukraine and the European Union.

He expressed hope that Russia’s relations with the West can still be saved.

“I believe that this war, if it is ended properly, will make it feasible,” he said.