U.S. officials accused of withholding documents
Leaders’ session in Finland to follow NATO summit
Republicans demanded details about surveillance tactics during the Russia investigation.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, announced that they will meet in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, a longanticipated summit of friendly rivals that occurs amid an American criminal inquiry into Russia’s election interference and concerns that the United States is drifting from its traditional allies.
Even as the announcement went out Thursday, Trump signaled a partiality toward Russia that belies its many conflicts with the United States. On Twitter, he noted Russia’s insistence that it “had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election,” seemingly accepting that claim over the assessment of U.S intelligence agencies that Moscow intervened in the 2016 campaign to boost Trump.
Trump also aired his grievances with the Russia inquiry, which has hung over his presidency. Special counsel Robert Mueller also is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and whether Trump sought to obstruct the inquiry. “There was no Collusion and the Witch Hunt, headed by 13 Angry Democrats and others who are totally conflicted, is Rigged!” Trump wrote.
His online posts seemed timed to preview a House hearing at which Trump’s Republican allies intended to confront Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who is overseeing the inquiry, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose agency has been at the center of it.
Trump and Putin met briefly, and amicably, last year during an international conference in Hamburg, Germany, but this will be their first full summit.
“The two leaders will discuss relations between the United States and Russia and a range of national security issues,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
The Trump-Putin session will follow the U.S. president’s summit in Belgium with North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners, who have been worried that Trump has sparred with traditional allies in Europe over trade, environmental and military policies while speaking warmly of Putin. In between, Trump will visit Britain, another longtime ally that has seen its relationship chill during his administration.
Trump, though he has imposed sanctions on Russia for its election meddling and other hostile actions, has maintained that the country could be a partner in solving problems in Syria, North Korea and other global hot spots.
He raised hackles this month when he said Russia should be invited to rejoin the Group of 7 leading industrialized nations, returning it to the Group of 8. The alliance ousted Russia after its takeover of Crimea in 2014. American and allied officials continue to accuse Russia of backing separatists in eastern Ukraine, and earlier this year, Britain charged Moscow with the attempted assassination there of a former Russian spy and his daughter.
“I’ve said it from Day One: Getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing,” Trump said Wednesday. “It’s good for the world, it’s good for us, it’s good for everybody.”
It’s not unusual for American presidents to meet with their Russian counterparts amid tensions. Notable summits took place with the former Soviet Union throughout the Cold War and, after its breakup in the early 1990s, continued with Russia. Allies are worried, however, that Trump will repeat his performance earlier this month, when he had a provocative meeting with G-7 allies in Canada followed by a higher-profile summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a meeting at which he seemed more comfortable and accommodating. “There’s no good time to meet with Putin around the NATO summit,” said Elisabeth Braw, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.