The Kremlin said Monday that the Trump administration would need permission from the Russians to release transcripts of calls between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Of course their publication is to some extent only possible by mutual agreement of the parties. This is a certain diplomatic practice,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, responding to comments made by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
“To be more specific, perhaps, diplomatic practice in general does not envisage their publication. If there are some signals from the Americans, then we will discuss [them],” he said, according to Reuters.
The California Democrat said Sunday that Democrats have their sights set on Trump’s calls with his Russian counterpart, citing concerns that Trump may have undermined national security to benefit his campaign for reelection.
The Democratic-led House began a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump last week in the aftermath of a whistleblower complaint alleging the president urged Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election by investigating Joe Biden, the Democratic primary front-runner and former vice president.
The White House released a transcript of Trump’s July conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday. Two days later, Russia said it hoped the contents of Putin’s calls with Trump would remain private.
“We would like to hope that we would not see such situations in our bilateral relations, which already have plenty of quite serious problems,” Peskov said Friday.
