Trump congratulates Putin and ignores Salisbury attack

DONALD TRUMP has congratulated Vladimir Putin on his election victory and said the pair will hold talks in the “not too distant future”.

The US president failed to mention the Salisbury spy poisoning in the call, despite a two-week push from Britain for a tough stance on Russia.

Instead, Mr Trump discussed the arms race with the Russian leader, who recently revealed Russia’s strengthening weapons arsenal. The pair also discussed Syria, North Korea and Ukraine.

Mr Putin won the election with more than 76per cent of the vote, meaning he will rule until 2024, despite claims of ballot-stuffing.

Mr Trump said: “I had a call with President Putin and congratulated him on his electoral victory.”

He added: “We had a very good call and I expect we will be meeting in the not too distant future.

“The arms race is getting out of control but we’ll never allow anyone to have anything near what we have.”

The White House confirmed Mr Trump did not bring up claims of election meddling in the Russian vote during the call.

Meanwhile, EU divisions over Russia were laid bare yesterday after Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s lead Brexit negotiator, attacked the bloc’s most senior official for congratulating Mr Putin on his election victory.

Jean-claude Juncker, the European Commission president, tweeted a letter of congratulations just one day after the EU offered the UK its “unqualified support” over the Salisbury attack.

But Mr Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal ALDE group, responded: “This is no time for congratulations. We will always need dialogue with Russia, but closer ties must be conditional on respect for the rules-based international order and fundamental values.”

Ashley Fox, the leader of Conservative MEPS in the European Parliament, whose constituency includes Salisbury, branded the letter “nauseating”.

Senior EU sources said that Theresa May would present Britain’s case on the Salisbury attack tomorrow in Brussels and hinted that EU leaders could decide to toughen their language in the EU summit’s final conclusions when they are released on Friday.