President offers White House sit-down with Putin
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration opened the door to a potential White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, raising the possibility of an Oval Office welcome for Putin for the first time in more than a decade, even as relations between the two powers have deteriorated.
The Kremlin said Monday that Trump had invited the Russian leader to the White House when they spoke by telephone last month. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders responded that the White House was among “a number of potential venues” discussed. Both sides said they hadn’t started preparations for such a visit.
If it happens, Putin would be getting the honor of an Oval Office tete-a-tete for the first time since he met President George W. Bush in 2005.
Much has happened since Trump and Putin spoke in the March 20 phone call. Trump said afterward he hoped to meet with Putin “in the not too distant future” to discuss the nuclear arms race and other matters. But their call was followed by reports that Trump had been warned in briefing materials not to congratulate the Russian president on his re-election but did so anyway.
Since the call, two dozen countries, including the U.S. and many European Union nations, and NATO expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats in solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former spy, and his daughter, Yulia. Moscow has denied any involvement in the nerve attack and retaliated by expelling the same number of diplomats from each country.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters Monday that when the two leaders spoke by phone, “Trump suggested to have the first meeting in Washington, in the White House,” which Ushakov called a “quite interesting and positive idea.”
Ushakov voiced hope that tensions resulting from the diplomatic expulsions wouldn’t derail discussions about a summit.