On March 18, Russia held presidential elections. With a large margin from other candidates, Vladimir Putin won. The heads of many countries sent their congratulations or called Putin. They all know their colleague well. There was no congratulation from US President Donald Trump that somebody started to comment. However, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Vladimir Putin, advised not to regard as an unfriendly step the lack of attention on the part of the White House - congratulations come a lot, the schedules of the heads of state are usually very tense, there can be serious reasons when it is difficult to call, and finally the morning of the evening wiser. On March 20, Washington initiated a telephone conversation between the two heads of state - the US Donald Trump and the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. The conversation lasted 20 minutes. Donald Trump congratulated Vladimir Putin on winning the election. Both heads spoke in favor of developing practical cooperation in various issues. In particular, the fight against terrorism and limitation of the arms race, the internal crisis in Ukraine, the Syrian problem and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. The press service of the Kremlin called the conversation productive. Donald Trump later called the conversation "very good" and did not rule out the possibility of meeting in the near future. He said that there are many topics that I would like to discuss with the Russian president. After a call to criticize Trump, Republican Senator John McCain collapsed:

"With this congratulation to Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in free and fair elections to determine the future of his country, including the countless Russian patriots who so they risked to oppose the Putin regime ". You can persist McCain as much as you like, but international observers recognized that the March 18 elections were free, democratic and transparent.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin was congratulated by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Germany, India, Serbia, China, Japan, Turkey, Jordan, South Ossetia.