Cold War is now a thing of the past, says Putin
Russian president denies meddling in US election as Trump takes ‘a political risk in pursuit of peace’
DONALD TRUMP praised his talks with Vladimir Putin as “direct, open [and] deeply productive” yesterday as both leaders promised to work together to solve the world’s problems.
The US president said the meetings behind closed doors in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, had gone “very well” and had already begun to repair Russian-american relations.
Mr Putin, the Russian president, declared the Cold War a “thing of the past” as he offered to work with Mr Trump on ending the Syrian civil war and reducing nuclear tensions.
Their first ever joint summit got off to a shaky start after Mr Putin – who watched the World Cup final in Moscow on Sunday – kept Mr Trump waiting for around an hour.
However the one-on-one talks in the Finnish Presidential Palace ran over time, lasting around two hours, before a wider meeting with aides over a working lunch.
When both leaders strode to their podiums in front of interlocking US and Russia flags for a joint press conference they appeared in conciliatory mood.
Mr Putin begun by saying the conversations had been “frank” but “fruitful”. “The Cold War is a thing of past; the era of acute ideological confrontation of the two countries is a thing of remote past, is a vestige of the past. The situation in the world changed dramatically,” he said.
Mr Putin added: “We had a good conversation with President Trump, and I hope that we start to understand each other better. And I’m grateful to Donald for it.”
Mr Trump said: “Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that.”
The US president added: “I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics.”
Over 45 minutes, the leaders discussed everything from Syria and the Crimea to election meddling and cyber-hacking.
Putin denies election meddling claims
Mr Putin issued a categorical denial to claims that the Kremlin was involved in interfering with the US presidential election of 2016, which Mr Trump won.
“The Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere into internal American affairs, including election process,” he said during his opening remarks.
Pushed on why people should believe his rebuttal, Mr Putin demanded that those making the claim – which have included the US intelligence community – provide proof.
He said: “We should not proceed from the immediate political interests that guide certain political powers in our countries. We should be guided by facts. Could you name a single fact that would definitely prove the collusion? This is utter nonsense, just like the president recently mentioned.”
The Russian president admitted he wanted Mr Trump to win. He also sug- gested Mr Trump got political support in America because he wanted to restore Us-russia relations.
No ‘compromising material’ on Trump
For 18 months a dossier of salacious unproven claims about Mr Trump pulled together by Christopher Steele, the former British spy, have distracted from his presidency. In particular the allegation that he was taped by Russian spies asking prostitutes to perform a lewd sex act while at a Moscow hotel made headlines. Mr Trump has always denied it.
Mr Putin referenced the claims when he said that, as a former intelligence officer, “I do know how dossiers are made up”. Asked outright if he had any compromising material on the US president or his family, Mr Putin said he was not even aware Mr Trump was visiting Moscow at the time.
Mr Putin said: “I did hear these rumours that we allegedly collected compromising material on Mr Trump when he was visiting Moscow… It’s difficult to imagine an utter nonsense of a bigger scale than this.”
Mr Trump then said that “it would have been out long ago” if such an allegation were true.
Putin invites US investigators to Russia
In a proposal Mr Trump called an “interesting idea”, Mr Putin appeared to offer help to Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the US election meddling investigation.
The Russian leader said authorities in Moscow could question the 12 Russians charged with hacking the Democratic Party’s emails.
He added that he would even invite Mr Mueller’s investigators to be present in Russia during the interviews.
However Mr Putin said that in exchange Russian officials should be allowed to question US intelligence agents about Bill Browder, the US investor who is accused of tax fraud.
Mr Browder has lobbied for the passage of US anti-corruption legislation targeting Russian officials.
Some cooperation over Syria
The two presidents appeared to agree on providing aid to address the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
Mr Trump said that “hundreds of thousands of lives” could be saved if they worked together, while Mr Putin said solving the crisis could ease immigration pressures on Europe.
Agreement appeared to be elusive on the issue of Iran’s involvement in the conflict – a key sticking point.
The leaders said Israel’s security concerns would be addressed, but there were no details on how this would be accomplished.
Israel wants to rein in Iranian forces in Syria, but Tehran has been a key Russian ally in keeping Bashar al-assad in power.
Working together on nuclear issues
Mr Putin said Russia would create an expert council of diplomats, political scientists and military experts to “look for points of contact between the two countries” on nuclear issues.
Mr Trump called nuclear proliferation “one of the most critical challenges facing humanity” and said Mr Putin was going to help achieve the denuclearisation of North Korea.
The Russian leader said he had given the American side a note with arms control suggestions. “As major nuclear powers, we bear special responsibility for maintaining international security,” he said. “It’s crucial that we fine-tune the dialogue on strategic stability and global security and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”
World Cup praise
Mr Trump complimented his Russian counterpart on holding “one of the best ever” World Cups and on the success of the Russian team, which managed to make the quarter finals.
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup in North America, Mr Putin presented Mr Trump with a World Cup football.