Putin to Trump: ‘Be my guest in Moscow’

JOHANNESBURG: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he had invited Donald Trump to Moscow and that both he and the US president want further summits, despite the uproar in Washington after the two leaders met in Helsinki last week.

Following the backlash in the US over Trump’s cordial public tone with Putin at the Helsinki summit, US and Russian officials backed away from a proposal to schedule a follow-up summit.

But speaking to reporters in South Africa, where he was attending a summit of BRICS nations, Putin said another meeting with Trump was still on the agenda. “Regarding our meetings, I understand very well what President Trump said. He has a desire to have further meetings,” Putin said.

“I am ready for that. We need for the appropriate conditions to exist, to be created, including in our countries,” Putin said. “We are ready for such meetings. We are ready to invite President Trump to Moscow. Be my guest. He has such an invitation, I told him that.”

Putin did not say how Trump had reacted to the invitation. The last time Trump was in the Russian capital was in 2013, to attend a Miss Universe beauty pageant.

Referring to the proposal for a meeting in the US, Putin said: “I am ready to go to Washington. I repeat once again, if the right conditions for work are created.”

In the meantime, he said, it was possible that he and Trump would meet on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina in November, or at another international event. In an apparent reference to the backlash inside the US after Trump’s performance at Helsinki, Putin said: “Despite the difficulties, in this particular case difficulties linked to the internal political situation in the United States, life goes on and our contacts continue.”