Putin willing to turn over transcript of Trump meeting with Russians

Russian leader dismissive of U. S. politicians

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he is ready to provide the U. S. Senate with a transcript of last week's controversial Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov that is at the center of al- legations that Trump revealed highly classified information.

"If the U. S. administration considers it possible, we are ready to submit a transcript of Lavrov’s talk with Trump to the U. S. Senate and Congress, if, of course, the U. S. administration would want this," Putin said, according to the Russian- owned Tass news agency .

Putin's comments came during a joint news conference in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with visiting Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Trump has come under fire following news reports that he shared sensitive intelligence about an Islamic State plot with Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak during a meeting at the White House.

At one point, Putin jokingly said he needed to upbraid Lavrov for failing to share the "secrets" with him.

"I will have to reprimand him because he shared these secrets neither with me nor with the Russian secret services which is very inappropriate on his part," Putin joked, according to the Russian Interfax news agency.

Putin said he had “no other explanation” as to why Trump has come under attack over the alleged incident other than “politi- cal schizophrenia,” according to Interfax.

The Russian president said he initially found debates about Russia’s meddling in U. S. politics “funny,” but said Moscow is now “concerned because it’s hard to imagine what the people who produce such nonsense can come up with next.”

He dismissed U. S. politicians — unnamed — as either being “stupid” or “dangerous and unscrupulous” who are wittingly “causing the damage to their own country.”

Asked what he thinks of the Trump presidency, Putin said it’s up to the American people to judge but that his performance can be rated “only when he’s allowed to work at full capacity,” implying that someone is hampering Trump’s efforts.

The White House on Tuesday defended Trump discussing with the Russians an Islamic State group terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft.

Speaking to Russian news agencies on Wednesday Yuri Ushakov, a Putin aide, earlier would not comment on the contents of last week’s talks among Trump, Lavrov and Kislyak.