By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Washington : US President Barack Obama congratulated Vladimir Putin on his victory in the Russian presidential election in a telephone call Friday.
It is the first time the two leaders have spoken since Putin won the presidential election Sunday, Yury Ushakov, a foreign affairs aide to Putin, told RIA Novosti.
Obama told Putin he is ready to “work closely” with the Russian president-elect, Ushakov said. “The telephone conversation was informal and wholly substantive in nature and lasted about 20 minutes,” he said.
They also expressed willingness to hold a summit meeting in the near future and agreed to maintain contact with each other until they do meet.
Putin and Obama agreed that criticism of each other made in the heat of election campaigns should not be allowed to become obstacles in bilateral relations.
Putin stressed the importance of Russian-US relations for global security and Obama expressed the hope “that the positive trends in bilateral relations seen in the last few years will continue,” the aide said.
Putin, incumbent prime minister, also wished Obama luck in his White House re-election campaign.