Putin hails Helsinki summit as a success and chides Trump’s critics

RUSLAND - Vladimir Putin called his first summit with Donald Trump a success, and said yesterday that Trump’s opponents in the US are hampering any progress on what they discussed, such as limiting nuclear arsenals or ending the Syrian war. In his first public comments about the summit, the Russian president told the country’s diplomats that US-Russian relations are “in some ways worse than during the cold war”, but that his meeting with Trump on Monday allowed them to start on “the path to positive change”. “It’s naive to think that the problems would be solved in a few hours. But no one expected that,” Putin said. “We will see how things develop further,” Putin said, evoking unnamed “forces” in the US trying to prevent any improvement in relations and “putting narrow party interests above the national interest”. Putin faces no serious political opposition at home, and leads a country that has never experienced a democratic transfer of power. Trump, by contrast, has come under widespread domestic criticism about the meeting from Democratic opponents and senior Republicans. Trump notably flip-flopped repeatedly over what exactly he said to Putin at the summit, and whether he believes that Russia meddled in the 2016 election campaign on Trump’s behalf.

Trump tweeted yesterday that his critics in the media “are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin”. In a possible dig at Trump’s unpredictable presidency, Putin vaunted Russia’s “consistent, responsible, independent foreign policy”. Putin had criticism and praise for Trump in a broad speech about Russian foreign policy. The Russian leader praised Trump’s mediation efforts in North Korea, but slammed his decision to pull out of the international accord curbing Iran’s nuclear activities. He also lashed out at Nato, saying Russia would hit back with an “equivalent response” to Nato bases near Russia’s borders and other “aggressive steps”. He did not elaborate. (The Guardian)