Vladimir Putin (left) and Donald Trump. A senior Trump administration official confirmed Trump and Putin had spoken on Sunday. In their phone call, Putin asked Trump to pass on his thanks to the CIA officers who had gathered the intelligence, according to the Kremlin statement. However, Russian officials say Putin believes Trump is not to blame for the tension, and has tried to keep personal lines of communication open between the two men. In December 2013, two suicide bombers killed 34 people in attacks on a railway station and trolleybus in the Russian city of Volgograd.

Source: Otago Daily Times December 17, 2017 17:37 UTC