Washington (CNN) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday he speaks "regularly" with President Donald Trump.

So, how often do they really speak?

An administration official told CNN's Jeremy Diamond that the White House puts out readouts for every call Trump has with Putin, knowing that it "would've been a disaster if news leaked of a secret call."

The pace of Trump-Putin calls is roughly equivalent to the number of phone calls President Barack Obama held with Putin in his final two years in office. They spoke nine times in 2015 and 2016.

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