Russian President Vladimir Putin’s final words at the Alaska summit were delivered with a smile, spoken in an unusual burst of English.
“And next time in Moscow,” Putin said – no translation needed – in response to US President Donald Trump suggesting they would see each other again very soon.
Putin has been known to give casual side comments and niceties in foreign languages. He also said “thank you so much” in English at the end of his summit with Trump, which concluded without a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
But typically, the Russian leader – a former intelligence officer with the Soviet Union’s security service, the KGB – uses translators to avoid speaking in English during diplomatic conversations.
Putin is known to be fluent in German. During his days as a KGB officer during the Cold War, Putin was posted to Dresden, which was then East Germany. Putin and former chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel were known to speak German to each other during their meetings.
