Trump tells Putin world wants them to ‘get along’

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump began his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, testing his campaign pledge to revive ties with Russia amid pressure to confront the Kremlin leader over election meddling and growing concern that the US is abandoning the current international order.
The highly anticipated event started with a one-on-one session between the former property developer and the former KGB agent that stretched to more than two hours — with only their respective translators in attendance. For Putin, the meeting is a win even before it began, as it helps restore an image of parity with the US that Russia lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After the two leaders finished their one-on-one session, Trump said the summit was off to “a very good start for everybody” before beginning an expanded session including senior advisers for both leaders.
Earlier, as the summit opened, Trump said their discussions would cover “everything from trade to military to missiles to nuclear to China.”
He didn’t mention the indictments or the Kremlin’s interference in the US election.
In a bit of gamesmanship, Putin arrived in Helsinki about a half-hour late, while Trump didn’t depart the resort home where he was meeting with advisers for the summit until after the Russian leader arrived at the presidential palace. The meeting was delayed about an hour as a result.
“It is now time to talk in depth about our bilateral ties and sore points in the world,” Putin said in Russian. “There are enough of those that we need to pay attention to.”
Having campaigned on a promise to improve ties with Putin, Trump’s met the Kremlin leader over the objections of US lawmakers after a grand jury indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for their alleged role in meddling with the 2016 election. The Russian agents are accused of hacking email accounts controlled by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and publiciisng messages. The indictments raised the stakes for the Helsinki summit, even as aides to both Trump and Putin ratcheted down expectations.
Trump said in an interview with CBS News that he may ask the Russian president to extradite the agents to the US. On Monday, he blamed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the election interference for poor relations between the US and Russia, rather than the Kremlin activities that the Department of Justice began probing in 2016.
“Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of US foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” Trump wrote on Twitter as he prepared to meet Finland’s president, Sauli Niinisto.The Russian Foreign Ministry responded by tweet: “We agree.”