The Trump-Putin summit, which took place in Finland last week, capped off a calamitous trip to Europe by the U.S. leader during which he appeared to delight in unnerving allies by criticizing the leaders of Germany and the United Kingdom, while questioning the purpose of NATO.
When he met with Putin, however, Trump was much less confrontational, piling blame on his own country for poor ties with Russia and suggesting he believed Putin’s denial of election meddling over his own intelligence agencies' conclusion on the matter. "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," Trump said.
Last week, the White House announced that Trump had asked his national security adviser, John Bolton, to invite Putin to Washington “in the fall,” and that the trip was already being discussed.
Ties between Moscow and Washington have been deteriorating since 2014, in the wake of the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
The relations became even more strained following the 2016 US presidential election, in which Russia was accused of meddling; Washington has slapped Moscow with numerous rounds of sanctions ever since.
