Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Kremlin: Trump invited Putin to the White House

HISTORIC GESTURE? Move likely to sharpen divisions in US on ties with Russia

- The New York Times letters@hindustant­imes.com

MOSCOW: When US President Donald Trump called President Vladimir Putin last month, he not only ignored advisers’ pleas to not congratula­te the Russian leader on his lopsided election victory but also suggested that Putin visit the White House.

That was the account of the leaders’ March 20 conversati­on given on Monday by Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. He told reporters in Moscow that Trump had suggested a meeting at the White House, saying, “This is a rather positive idea.”

White House spokeswoma­n Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday that the White House was among “a number of potential venues” discussed during the March 20 phone call. She said the administra­tion had no further comment.

Trump had told reporters in the Oval Office shortly after his call with the Russian leader that “probably we’ll be seeing President Putin in the not-too-distant future,” but officials said at the time that there were no plans for the two men to meet before November, when they are both expected to attend a Group of 20 gathering in Argentina.

In the two weeks since the call, relations have spiraled downward, with the United States and numerous nations in Europe and elsewhere agreeing to the simultaneo­us expulsion of scores of Russian diplomats in retaliatio­n for the March 4 nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Salisbury, England.

Ushakov said that the two countries had not started any preparator­y talks for a White House meeting, because of the tailspin in relations. He nonetheles­s voiced hope that Trump would not drop the idea. “I hope the Americans won’t abandon their proposal to discuss the possibilit­y of holding the summit,” he said.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, however, was quickly quoted as dismissing Ushakov’s account as incorrect.

Just as Trump has shown a curious reluctance to criticise Putin, even when the two countries are ejecting each other’s diplomats, the Kremlin and the Russian news outlets it controls have often avoided criticisin­g Trump directly.

Many Russian officials and commentato­rs have embraced the idea that, no matter how much the two countries shout at each other over the former spy’s poisoning, election meddling, Ukraine, Syria and various other points of friction, Trump wants a rapprochem­ent but is being held back by “Russophobi­c” forces in Congress and the “Deep State.”

Trump’s telephone call to Putin took place six days after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats over the Salisbury attack. It angered many in Washington, including some of Trump’s advisers, who wanted the president to address Moscow’s role in the nerve agent assault.

 ?? REUTERS FILE ?? Trump with Putin during a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Germany last July
REUTERS FILE Trump with Putin during a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Germany last July
 ?? REUTERS ?? Malala Yousafzai
REUTERS Malala Yousafzai

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