Friday 19 / April / 2024
Helsinki: U.S. President Donald Trump emerged from a meeting with Vladimir Putin on Monday saying he saw no reason to believe Russia had hacked the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the Russian leader “was extremely strong and powerful” in denying it.
The landmark meeting of these two leaders in Finland was being sold as the first step on the road to salvaging stricken relations. But in the build up Donald Trump's critics have accused the U.S. president of being the "Kremlin's propaganda arm."
U.S. President Donald Trump said, "Our relationship has never been worse than it is now, however that changed as of about four hours ago."
Critics urged Trump to use the summit to press Putin over alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election and other malign activities. Something he said he did - adding he saw no reason to believe Russia had acted to help him win. Trump said, "During today's meeting I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections." Putin replied to his US counterpart that Russia never meddled- calling the allegations "completely absurd." Just on Friday the investigation into possible links between Russia and Trumps 2016 presidential campaign made this meeting all the more complicated. The special prosecutor in the probe indicted 12 Russians for stealing Democratic party documents. Trump said "I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did was an incredible offer, he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer, OK? Thank you."
Both leaders hailed the success of this summit, talking up the opportunity to restore trust. They reportedly discussed an array of issues, including Syria, nuclear disarmament, and Iran. But Trump didn't utter a single critique of his counterpart on any of the issues when addressing reporters. For his detractors that will likely be the main takeaway.
