Russian President Vladimir Putin came out on Thursday praised his summit meeting with US President Donald Trump earlier in the week claiming it was a success. However, he talked about certain forces in the U.S. now want to prevent what was achieved there.”
In his statement Putin said, “It would be naive to think the problems would be solved in a few hours. But no one expected that.”
He also noted that their meeting was a success as it had allowed the United States and Russia to start down the path of positive change and away from a confrontation he claimed was worse than the Cold War.
He further added saying “We will see how events develop further, moreover, as certain forces are trying to disavow the results of the meeting in Helsinki, We see that in the United States there are forces that are ready to easily sacrifice Russian-American relations to their ambitions.”
Putin’s comments were a thinly veiled criticism of the uproar that has followed the Helsinki summit in the U.S., where Trump had come under attack from both Republicans and Democrats, as well as in the news media, for what critics have said was his failure to publicly confront Putin over Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
Instead, Trump has been accused of siding with the Russian leader against his own intelligence agencies and humiliating the U.S. by declining to challenge an authoritarian leader accused of attacking America. Democrats as well as some former government officials, including ex-CIA Director John Brennan, have a gone so far as to call Trump’s behavior treasonous, while even some staunch Trump supporters have expressed distress at his performance with Putin.
According to Trump’s statement, “The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war. They are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin. We are doing MUCH better than any other country!”
Trump is facing some of the heaviest criticism of his presidency since he met with Putin for their first bilateral summit, where the two had announced they wanted to put an end to the confrontation that has characterized U.S.-Russia relations for the past several years.
In a press conference afterwards, “I hold both countries responsible, “I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago.”
He further said, “But the main thing and we discussed this also is zero collusion,”And it has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. It is ridiculous what’s going on with the probe.”
Putin, on Thursday, said that greater cooperation between Russia and the U.S. was necessary for global stability, noting, like Trump had, that as the world’s largest nuclear powers they have a responsibility to get along.
“Russia is open for developing contacts with the United States on an equal, mutually beneficial basis. That is needed not only for our two peoples but for the whole world.”
Putin also told the ambassadors that work needed to begin “immediately” on reaffirming the New START arms control treaty, which he warned would otherwise “simply cease to exist” when it expires in 18 months. At the Helsinki summit, Putin said that he and Trump had agreed on the need to work to preserve current arms control treaties that govern the two countries’ nuclear arsenals and which have recently been under increasing strain. The New START treaty, which was agreed to by President Barack Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev, confirmed and expanded Cold War-era commitments by Russia and the U.S. to reduce their deployed nuclear warheads. Experts, however, worry that it may not be continued when it comes up for renewal in 2020.
Besides that initiative to make progress on arms controls, it was unclear what agreements Putin was referring two in Thursday’s speech. In Helsinki, the presidents said they had agreed to create a commission made up of business representatives to discuss greater economic cooperation. They also said they had ordered their national security councils to intensify their contacts to look for ways to find agreement around issues such as Syria and arms control.
On Tuesday, Russia’s defense ministry released a statement saying “it was ready for the practical implementation of the agreements” made between Putin and Trump at the summit, noting it wanted to discuss the New START treaty, interaction in Syria and other military issues. That statement was puzzling since the White House and Pentagon have not announced any concrete agreements from the summit.