Vladimir Putin has not been invited to Donald Trump’s inauguration, Moscow says | US News

Vladimir Putin has not been invited to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration next month, Moscow has said.

The Kremlin said it had not received an invitation for the Russian president to attend the US president-elect’s swearing-in ceremony on 20 January.

Meanwhile Mr Trump has reportedly invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the inauguration in Washington DC, according to CBS News.

The outlet cited multiple sources saying the invitation had been made shortly after Mr Trump won the presidential election on 5 November.

It said it was not clear if the invitation had been accepted.

In an interview with NBC News last week, Mr Trump said he “got along very well” with Mr Xi and said they “had communication as recently as this week”.

It would be unprecedented for either of the presidents of Russia or China, US rivals, to attend the inauguration.

Mr Trump’s impending inauguration has seen US President Joe Biden rush to get billions of dollars more in military aid to Ukraine and attempt to bring Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza to a close.

The president-elect has insisted Moscow and Kyiv reach an immediate ceasefire, and has said Ukraine should likely prepare to receive less in the way of US military aid.

Both Mr Biden’s outgoing and Mr Trump’s incoming administrations have said they hope to end the Israel-Hamas war before the president-elect’s inauguration in January, but months of ceasefire talks have stalled repeatedly and no end appears to be in sight.

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Zuckerberg’s Meta donates $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund

It comes as Mark Zuckerberg’s firm Meta donated $1m to Mr Trump’s inauguration fund, according to The Wall Street Journal, as the Facebook founder tries to mend ties with the president-elect.

Mr Trump threatened to imprison the billionaire in August if he did “anything illegal” to influence the presidential election.

But last month the pair dined together at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with Mr Zuckerberg making clear he wants to support “national renewal”, according to the president-elect’s deputy chief of staff.

Donations to the inauguration fund will go towards events around the swearing-in ceremony.