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Russian presidential administration ready to make public Putin-Barroso conversation

In a telephone conversation with EC President Jose Manuel Barroso, Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly said that Russian troops would be able to "take Kiev in two weeks" if necessary
Jose Manuel Barroso and Vladimir Putin ITAR-TASS/Grigory Sysoev
Jose Manuel Barroso and Vladimir Putin
© ITAR-TASS/Grigory Sysoev

MOSCOW, September 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s presidential administration has both the transcript and the audio recording of a recent phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and “is ready to make public its content to remove all misunderstandings”, Russia’s Ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said in a letter to Barroso.

“Over the past few days, some media, including the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, have been publishing comments regarding your phone conversation with President Putin last Friday, August 29,” the letter said.

Earlier, media reports quoted Barroso mentioning his telephone conversation with Putin. In the conversation. Putin allegedly said that Russian troops would be able to "take Kiev in two weeks" if necessary. “The reports say you allegedly shared the content of the conversation with some of your EU colleagues, in particular attributing to the Russian president words that were clearly taken out of context,” it said.

“I am convinced that disclosure of confidential conversations of this level goes far beyond the bounds of the generally accepted diplomatic practice,” Chizhov emphasized. “I know that the Russian presidential administration has both the transcript and the audio recording of the mentioned phone conversation and, in order to remove misunderstandings, is ready to make its content public in full in case you do not voice your objections to it within the next two days,” he said.

Earlier Tuesday, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said Putin’s words about "taking Kiev in two weeks" were taken out of context and had a different meaning.

Ushakov said disclosure of phone conversation details by the European Commission head is "incorrect and goes beyond the bounds of the diplomatic practice".