Vladimir Putin spoke English in rare moment during plea for help

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the news a lot for things that he and his team say, but one thing he rarely does is speak English.

In fact, a lot of people don't know that Putin can speak the language.

Following the Russian leader's summit with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday (15 August), many were left shocked when Putin made a rare four-word comment in English - something that also appeared to catch the US president off guard.

It was reported earlier this year that the pair had a '90-minute conversation' about the war in Ukraine, with the White House going as far as confirming 'both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace'.

The war, which began in February 2022, is currently ongoing. However, the latest peace talks unfortunately ended without a deal - though Trump insisted 'great progress' was made.

Does the Russian President speak English? (VYACHESLAV PROKOFIEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced his grievances at his exclusion from the summit in Alaska, he is set to visit the White House today (18 August).

A rare clip has recently resurfaced of Putin speaking English, meaning that he does have a grasp of the language, or he's really good at reading off a teleprompter.

We can all be sure that Trump probably doesn't know much Russian, only being proficient in English, perhaps with a word or two in Slovenian because of his wife and son.

Putin though, has only been seen speaking Russian and uses an interpreter in press conferences.

However, the 72-year-old is known for having a decent understanding when it comes to foreign languages, apparently becoming fluent in Germany while being a Soviet spy in East Germany.

There's also a video of Putin speaking fluent English doing the rounds online, which you can view here:

As you can probably tell from the title, the address was to announce Russia's bid to host the 2020 World Expo in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also claimed via i News in 2021 that Putin 'understands English completely' and even corrects his translators from time to time.

So this begs the question, why does Putin choose to speak Russian at any given chance?

Well, if you think about it, you'd probably want to stick to your mother tongue as a world leader, to allow you to express yourself as much as possible and reduce the chances of misspeaking in any capacity.

It was reported that he once said, when asked why he only conducts official business in his native language: "In Russian, thank God, I get by in German and I can express myself more or less in English."

The pair will meet for the first time in years on Friday (Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

You wouldn't want to slip up and cause the world's economy to crash, would you?

But to all of those out there who were curious about Putin's bilingual capabilities, your questions have been answered.

Now, who do we ask to find out Trump's level of Slovenian?