Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is ready to discuss the war in Ukraine with President Donald Trump and suggested it would be a good idea for them to meet, the Guardian reported on Friday.

In his first comments since Trump issued threats to inflict economic damage on Russia if it failed to end the war in Ukraine, Putin struck a favorable tone towards the US president.

Putin told a Russian state TV journalist: “We believe the current president’s statements about his readiness to work together. We are always open to this and ready for negotiations.

“It would be better for us to meet, based on the realities of today, to talk calmly.”

Putin went on to describe his relationship with Trump as “businesslike, pragmatic and trustworthy”.

Putin also said that the question of negotiating with Ukraine was complicated by the fact that its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had signed a decree preventing him from conducting talks with Putin.

In what seems to be an effort to court Trump’s favor, Putin echoed the US president’s claim that he would have prevented the war in Ukraine in 2022, also parroting Trump’s debunked assertion that the US elections had been “stolen” from him.

In the first days since his inauguration, Trump has repeatedly called for a swift resolution to the war in Ukraine, now nearing its third year, and has expressed his readiness to meet Putin “immediately”.

Trump’s initial attempts to persuade Putin to negotiate have been reinforced by threats to escalate pressure on Russia’s already strained economy, including the introduction of sanctions and tariffs, if Moscow fails to “make a deal” to end the war in Ukraine.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday evening, Trump also called on OPEC to push down global oil prices to hit a vital stream of revenue for the Kremlin.

“Right now the price is high enough that that war will continue,” he said, noting that the high oil price was helping to sustain Putin’s war efforts.

Oil and gas revenues have been the most important source of cash for the Kremlin, accounting for about a third to a half of total federal budget proceeds over the past decade.

On Friday, Putin downplayed Trump’s economic threats, saying that “excessively” low oil prices were bad for both the US and Russian economies.

A source in the Russian foreign policy establishment said: “Putin does not like public threats. He wants to be spoken to as an equal. It is clear that any deal will take some time.”

Some observers believe that the Russian leader may view Trump’s economic warning with skepticism.