MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. The Kremlin-White House hotline, created after the Caribbean Crisis, keeps functioning, but Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden have not used it yet, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS in an interview.
He gave a positive answer to the question of whether this channel of communications keeps functioning. "Undoubtedly, [the two leaders] may use [this line] if they want to," the Kremlin spokesman said.
However, he said that no situations necessitating the use of the hotline have emerged so far. "No," he said in response to a corresponding question.
The Washington-Moscow hotline was created after the Cuban Missile Crisis for emergency talks between the leaders of the USSR and the United States. It began operating on August 30, 1963.
During the Cold War, the line was properly used for emergencies, but in recent years, the presidents of Russia and the United States communicated directly by phone when necessary. In 2016, the media reported that acting US President Barack Obama allegedly used the ‘red phone’ to discuss the situation with cyber interference in the US election. However, the Kremlin denied this, explaining that the conversation was held through a regular closed line.