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March 31, 2017

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Putin wants a meeting soon with Trump and denounces his critics

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday denounced the scandals over Donald Trump’s ties to Moscow, adding that he would be happy to meet with his United States counterpart this year.

Speaking at an international forum on the Arctic organized by Russia in the northern city of Arkhangelsk, Putin once again denied any Kremlin involvement in the US election last year, slamming the recent accusations as “absurd” and “irresponsible.”

“We are just waiting for when the situation improves,” Putin said in televised comments. “When it’s over, I hope we decide on holding a meeting.”

Putin said he would be keen for their first face-to-face talks to happen at the G20 summit in July or earlier.

The G20 summit of world powers is set to convene in the northern German city of Hamburg in early July and both US and Russian leaders are expected to attend.

“We see the US as a great country with which we want to have a good partnership. Everything else is lies, inventions and provocations” used by “some political forces in the US ... to strengthen their position,” said Putin.

He slammed the scrutiny of the Russian ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, whose meetings with Trump’s associates figure in several congressional investigations into possible election meddling by Moscow.

“I can see the US ambassador (to Russia John Tefft) is sitting here ... He is communicating with everyone,” Putin told the audience at the forum.

“Meanwhile the contacts of our envoy are being limited, his every meeting is met with hostility as some kind of spy stunt,” Putin said, insisting that Kislyak is simply doing his job. “What else is he there for?” added the Russian leader.

US intelligence has accused Moscow of waging a broad-ranging campaign to help Trump to win the election. This has led to investigations in the Senate and House of Representatives as well as an FBI probe into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia.

Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner is to face a congressional panel over his contacts with Russian state bank executives last year that Moscow has dismissed as “normal business” for the banks.

Putin yesterday said the Russia allegations were used as a way to prevent Trump from implementing his policies


 

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