Putin gave Biden $twelve,000 pen established months ahead of Ukraine invasion | World News

Putin gave Biden $twelve,000 pen established months ahead of Ukraine invasion | World News [ad_1]
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Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Joe Biden a $twelve,000 pen and ornamental creating established at their initial presidential summit in Geneva in 2021 through a momentary thaw in relations that finished with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine 8 months later on.

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The creating established was the most pricey present Biden obtained from a overseas chief that calendar year. It was explained in an once-a-year report from the Point out Department’s Business office of the Main of Protocol as a “Kholuy lacquer miniature workshop desk creating established and pen.”

The present trade arrived through a 2.5-hour summit in Geneva in June 2021 that now sits as a significant-drinking water mark in US-Russian relations that then deteriorated in the operate-up to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a calendar year in the past.

ALSO Read through: Biden announces sanctions in opposition to Russia, phone calls Putin’s moves an ‘invasion’

The White Property claimed at the time that Biden experienced presented Putin a pair of his trademark aviator sun shades and a glass sculpture of an American bison, but neither the White Property nor the Kremlin disclosed Putin’s present at the time.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in 2021 gave Biden a US flag, believed to be really worth $seven-hundred, in accordance to the report, which particulars presents from overseas governments to federal staff members.

The trade of particular presents can be a revealing portion of global statecraft, frequently showcasing the personalities of both equally the giver and the receiver. Throughout Donald Trump’s administration, overseas leaders wooed the president, with presents which includes a Louis Vuitton golfing bag from French President Emmanuel Macron and a gold-framed portrait of Trump himself from then-Vietnamese Primary Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Between the presents disclosed in Biden’s initial report are a Dupont fountain pen from Macron, a photo voltaic wristwatch from previous Swiss President Dude Parmelin, and a pen drawing of Biden’s childhood residence from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The late Queen Elizabeth II gave Biden a image of herself.

ALSO Read through: Halt fueling fireplace in Ukraine: China tells ‘certain countries’

Previous United kingdom Primary Minister Boris Johnson was maybe Biden’s most prolific gifter: He gave Biden two pet dog bowls, two wool blankets, a ceramic cup and mug established, a fountain pen with a bottle of Oxford blue ink and a photograph of a Frederick Douglass mural in Edinburgh.

Since the presents belong to the US govt and not the receiver, most presents are transferred to the Countrywide Archives and Information Administration for risk-free maintaining. But there are exceptions: Secretary of Point out Antony Blinken reimbursed the govt $1,457 to buy presents he obtained from Pope Francis, which includes a bas-aid depicting a migrant mom with a youngster.

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