Putin eyes new era of US relations

HAMBURG: President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he expects Russian-US cooperation will improve under Donald Trump and that the American president is “very different” in real life compared to on TV.

The comments came a day after the pair held their first face-to-face meeting, an encounter eagerly awaited in the wake of allegations that Russia had a hand in Mr Trump’s surprise election victory last year.

“The Trump that you see on TV is very different than the real Trump,” Mr Putin told reporters in Hamburg, Germany on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

“He perfectly understands whom he is talking to and answers questions quickly. I think personal relations were established.”

Mr Putin said he was positive about repairing US-Russian relations, which plunged to depths not seen since the Cold War under Mr Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.

“There is every reason to believe that we will be able to at least partially re-establish the level of cooperation that we need,” Mr Putin told a news conference.

“I very much hope [for an improvement in relations] and it seems to me that some basis for this has already been created,” Mr Putin said.

The Russian strongman said that in particular, the Trump administration appeared to be less rigid on the war on Syria, where Moscow and Washington back opposing sides.

“It seems to me that the US position [on Syria] has become more pragmatic. There is a comprehension that if we combine our efforts, we can achieve a lot,” Mr Putin said.

Russia and the US have agreed to a memorandum of understanding on creating a de-escalation zone in southwest Syria from yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.

Mr Lavrov said the ceasefire would be supervised by Russian military police “in coordination with the Jordanians and Americans”.

Regarding allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election that brought Mr Trump to power, Mr Putin said the US president had at their meeting accepted his denials.

“Trump asked a lot of questions [on the issue] and I answered him. It seems to me that he acknowledged and accepted” the answers, Mr Putin said.

Mr Trump has not spoken about the meeting other than to say earlier Saturday that it was “tremendous”.

According to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was present in the meeting, the pair had a “very robust and lengthy exchange” about the meddling claims.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, meanwhile told CNN Mr Putin was not to be believed. “Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections,” she said.

Mr Trump “wanted to basically look him in the eye, let him know that, yes, we know you meddled in our elections, yes, we know you did it and cut it out”, Ms Haley said.

“And I think President Putin did exactly what we thought he would do, which is deny it. This is Russia trying to save face. And they can’t. They can’t.”