Putin gifted Joe Biden a $12,000 pen set, months before invading Ukraine
Putin gave Biden $12,000 distinctive pen set
Russian President Vladimir Putin gifted Joe Biden a $12,000 distinctive Russian desk set during their first presidential summit in Geneva in 2021.The writing set was the most expensive gift Joe Biden received from a foreign leader that year. It was described in an annual report from the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol as a ‘Kholuy lacquer miniature workshop desk writing set and pen’.
The gift sits as a high-water mark in US-Russian relations that then deteriorated with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
The White House said at the time that Biden had given Putin a pair of his aviator sunglasses and a glass sculpture of an American bison, but the White House nor the Kremlin did not disclose it.
Meanwhile, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyvisited the White House two months ago, he offered an American flag, which according to reports was estimated to be worth $700.
ALSO READ : Biden to announce sanctions against Russia at virtual G7 meet Friday
Among the gifts disclosed in Biden’s first report is a Dupont fountain pen from Macron, a solar wristwatch from former Swiss President Guy Parmelin, and a pen drawing of Biden’s childhood home from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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The late Queen Elizabeth II gave Biden a picture of herself.
Even during Donald Trump’s administration, foreign leaders wooed the presidentwith gifts including a Louis Vuitton golf bag from French President Emmanuel Macron and a gold-framed portrait of Trump himself from then-Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave Biden two dog bowls, two wool blankets, a ceramic cup and mug set, a fountain pen with a bottle of Oxford blue ink and a photograph of a Frederick Douglass mural in Edinburgh.
Because the gifts belong to the US government and not the recipient, most gifts are transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration for safekeeping.
(With inputs from agencies)
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