White House rejects Putin idea for Ukraine referendum
WASHINGTON — The White House rejected on Friday a Vladimir Putin-backed effort to hold a referendum in Ukraine on the region’s future, distancing itself from the idea in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s controversial summit with the Russian leader.
Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said the two leaders had discussed the possibility of a referendum in separatist leaning eastern Ukraine during their Helsinki summit.
But Trump’s National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said agreements between Russia and the Ukrainian government for resolving the conflict in the Donbas region do not include any such option and any effort to organize a “so-called referendum” would have “no legitimacy.”
The back-and-forth came as the White House outlined the agenda for a proposed second summit between Trump and Putin — in Washington this fall — that would focus on national security. Moscow signalled its openness to a second formal meeting between the two leaders as criticism of Trump over his first major session with his Russian counterpart kept up in the U.S.
Trump left the White House for his New Jersey golf club for the weekend.
Once he got there, he returned to Twitter to complain about news coverage of Monday’s meeting.
“I got severely criticized by the Fake News Media for being too nice to President Putin,” he tweeted. “In the Old Days they would call it Diplomacy. If I was loud & vicious, I would have been criticized for being too tough.”
A White House official said the next Trump-Putin meeting would address the concerns they discussed in Helsinki, including Russian meddling. The official did not specify if that meant Russia’s interference in U.S. elections. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss planning, said the talks would also cover nuclear proliferation, North Korea, Iran and Syria.
One stop Putin almost surely won’t make is Capitol Hill.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to make clear that Putin wouldn’t be invited to address Congress if he visits Washington.
She said Trump’s “frightened fawning over Putin is an embarrassment and a grave threat to our democracy.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a sunnier view of the likely second summit. He said at the United Nations he was “happy that the two leaders of two very important countries are continuing to meet. If that meeting takes place in Washington, I think it is all to the good. Those conversations are incredibly important.”
It was not clear whether such a meeting would take place before or after the November congressional elections in the U.S.
A White House meeting would be a dramatic extension of legitimacy to the Russian leader, who has long been isolated by the West for activities in Ukraine, Syria and beyond and is believed to have interfered in the 2016 presidential election that sent Trump to the presidency. No Russian leader has visited the White House in nearly a decade.
Trump tweeted Thursday that he looked forward a “second meeting” with Putin and defended his performance at Monday’s summit, in which the two leaders conferred on a range of issues including terrorism, Israeli security, nuclear proliferation and North Korea.
“There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems ... but they can ALL be solved!” Trump tweeted.
U.S. officials have been mum on what, if anything, the two leaders agreed to in Helsinki during a two-hour, one-on-one meeting. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Thursday he had yet to be briefed on the private session.
Putin soccer ball gift to Trump gets routine security check
The red-and-white soccer ball tossed to President Donald Trump by Russia’s Vladimir Putin is undergoing a routine security screening.
Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup. Trump said he’d give the ball to his 12-year-old son Barron, a soccer fan.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Putin critic, tweeted after the exchange that he’d have the ball checked for listening devices and “never allow it in the White House.”
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told a security conference he’s sure the ball “has been looked at very carefully.”
The U.S. Secret Service says that is standard for all gifts to the president.