U.S., Russia hoping for better ties

SOCHI , R U SSIA» Russia and the U.S. voiced hope Tuesday that badly strained relations could begin to improve despite wide differences on many fronts and deep mutual suspicion exacerbated by Russian meddling in American elections.

With tension running high over Iran, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed vindication from the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and said he thought it was time to move on. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo conveyed President Donald Trump’s interest in restoring better ties.

In the highest-level faceto-face contact between the two countries since special counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released last month, Putin told Pompeo he hoped relations with the U.S. would now improve. Still, his claim of vindication covered only allegations that Russia and the Trump campaign colluded to hurt Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. Putin did not address Mueller’s conclusion that Russia actively interfered in the election.

“However exotic the work of special counsel Mueller was, I have to say that on the whole he has had a very objective investigation and he confirmed that there were no traces whatsoever of collusion between Russia and the incumbent administration, which we said was absolutely fake,” Putin said as he opened the meeting with Pompeo in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

“As we said before, there was no collusion from our government officials and it could not be there. Still, that was one of the reasons for the certain break in our inter-state ties,” he said. “I’m hoping today that the situation is changing.”

Pompeo did not specifically mention election meddling in his brief reply to Putin, though he did say the Trump administration would “protect our nation’s interest.”