Putin Gave Biden $12,000 Pen Set Months Before Ukraine Invasion
- Gift disclosed in annual report published by State Department
- Biden in return gave Putin aviator sunglasses, bison sculpture
Presidents Joe Biden, left, and Vladimir Putin meet during the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16, 2021.
Photographer: Peter Klaunzer/Pool/Getty Images
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Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Joe Biden a $12,000 pen and decorative writing set at their first presidential summit in Geneva in 2021 during a momentary thaw in relations that ended with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine eight months later.
The writing set was the most expensive gift Biden received from a foreign leader that year. It was described in an annual report from the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol as a “Kholuy lacquer miniature workshop desk writing set and pen.”