Kremlin rubbishes Volodymyr Zelensky's claims about Vladimir Putin

MOSCOW: After Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that he is not certain that Vladimir Putin is actually holding the office of the President of Russia or is even alive, the Kremlin dismissed the remark as an expression of Zelenskys 'wishful thinking', according to a media report.

Russia and Putin are "a big problem" for Zelensky, so it's natural that he "would prefer that neither Russia nor Putin existed", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday, RT reported.

He was reacting to a claim that Zelensky had made earlier in the day during his virtual appearance at the Ukrainian Breakfast, an event hosted on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, RT reported.

"I am not certain that the President of Russia, who makes occasional appearances on TV in front of a chroma key, is actually [Putin]," the Ukrainian leader said, using the term for a background replacement technique colloquially called the 'green screen'.

"I absolutely do not know whether he is alive, whether he takes decisions or someone else does," Zelensky added, speculating that Russia could be under a collegial rule, RT reported.

The remark came as the Ukrainian leader claimed that failure to reduce tensions with Moscow during the years of his presidency and the lack of negotiations today were Russia's fault.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had assessed that Zelensky and his government were not free to take decisions on foreign policy and that the country was hostage to a Western proxy war against Russia.

"There can be no negotiation with Zelensky, if only because he legally banned any talks with the Russian government," he had pointed out, RT reported. (IANS)

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