MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Thursday said President Vladimir Putin had not had any contact with Donald Trump, after the former US president said he would use his ties with Putin to get Wall Street reporter Evan Gershkovich freed from a Russian prison.

Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that this would happen soon after the November election in the United States, when he is seeking to defeat President Joe Biden and return to the White House. He did not refer to any contacts with Putin.

“Here, Putin has naturally not had contacts with Donald Trump,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Contacts about detained persons must be conducted in complete silence and absolutely discreetly, Peskov said.

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“This is the only way they can be effective,” he said.

Gershkovich was arrested in Russia in March last year on spying charges that he, his paper and US President Joe Biden’s administration have all strongly denied.

He has spent well over a year in a Moscow prison, with no date set for a trial.