Putin And Ousted Afghan President Gave Biden The Highest-Value Gifts In 2021

Gifts from Russian President Vladimir Putin and the deposed leader of Afghanistan were among the most notable received by President Joe Biden from foreign leaders in 2021, records from the State Department’s protocol office show.

Documents detailing the gifts were released Thursday, coming at a time when the two leaders’ ties with Biden are in a much different place than when the gifts were given.

Putin gifted Biden a lacquer writing case and pen worth $12,000 at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 2021, which was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January of that year. The focus of their conversation was limiting nuclear weapons. Less than a year later, the Russian invasion of Ukraine exacerbated tensions between the two leaders.

Also in June 2021, the then-president of Afghanistan, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, and his wife gave the president and first lady Jill Biden two silk rugs, one valued at $9,600 and the other at $19,200. Ghani hoped to reaffirm relations with the U.S. after Biden announced U.S. troops’ complete withdrawal from Afghanistan amid the Taliban’s growing strength.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden and meet during the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange on June 16, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland.

“The U.S. and Afghan leaders firmly agreed that although U.S. troops are leaving Afghanistan, the strong bilateral partnership will continue,” read a statement released by White House after Biden met with Ghani on June 25.

In June 2021, Abdullah Abdullah, who at the time was in charge of the Afghan peace council and widely regarded as one of the most powerful leaders besides Ghani, gifted a brass and lapis lazuli jewelry box to Biden, estimated to be worth $1,150.

Only two months later, on Aug. 15, the Ghani government fell when he fled the country and the Taliban took control of Kabul.

According to the State Department’s chief protocol officer’s annual report, Biden received more than $46,000 in gifts from foreign leaders during his first year in office, Bloomberg reported. Twenty-two gifts were worth more than $100, the report said. 

The National Archives now holds all of the gifts from Putin and Ghani, as is required for any gift to a U.S. official that is worth more than $415 — although they can retain the gift if they pay the estimated worth. Biden chose to keep a $2,200 photograph of Queen Elizabeth II that had been given to him at a Group of Seven summit in southeast England, according to CBS. 

Other notable gifts include a sand painting artwork of Biden worth $2,700, given by Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc; a pen drawing of Biden’s childhood home from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel that is worth $780; and jewelry boxes worth $2,400 each to both Biden and the first lady by King Abdullah and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.