{"id":646829,"date":"2019-06-28T15:14:12","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Friday for the first time since special counsel Robert Mueller released his report detailing Russia\u2019s \u201csweeping and systematic\u201d campaign to disrupt the 2016 election in Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Trump and Putin are scheduled to talk for about an hour to discuss a series of national security issues, including Iran\u2019s recent aggression, the civil war in Syria, where the United States and Russia are backing opposing sides, and a new arms control treaty with China.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s unclear whether Trump will press Putin on Mueller\u2019s findings. Before he left Washington, Trump declined to tell reporters at the White House what, if anything, he would say to Putin about election interference. Putin denies any Russian role in the election, and Trump has previously sparked controversy by appearing to accept the Russian president\u2019s word on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have a very good conversation with him,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat I say to him is none of your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior administration official described the meeting as a \u201cnormal event\u201d focused on improving the bilateral relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith regard to the message for Putin, I think the president\u2019s message on election interference is well known and he will be repeating it,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s approach to Putin on the subject has been under heavy scrutiny since a 2018 meeting between the two in Helsinki. At a news conference, Trump seemingly sided with Putin\u2019s denials over the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, which have blamed the Kremlin for orchestrating the systematic election meddling campaign. And just two weeks ago, Trump said in an interview that he might not report to the FBI any election help offered by a foreign source in the 2020 election cycle. He later tried to walk the statement back.<\/p>\n

While in Japan, Trump is holding a series of bilateral meetings at the annual meeting of the world\u2019s largest economies with autocratic leaders the president often praises for their strength and ability to act unilaterally. In addition to Putin, Trump will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

Democrats and Republicans have blasted Trump for what appears to be a reluctance to criticize Putin, even as his administration has repeatedly hit Russia with sanctions over issues like election interference and criticized Moscow for its aggression in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

But Trump himself has called Putin to congratulate him on an election that was marred with allegations of fraud, invited the Russian leader to the White House and suggested the Crimea region in Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014 should remain part of Russia.<\/p>\n

Even as he left for the G-20 summit this week, Trump blasted host county Japan and India on trade but said nothing about Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has said on a number of occasions that he was prevented from working more closely with Putin in the first two years because of the Russia investigation,\u201d said Thomas Wright, a geopolitics expert with the center-left Brookings Institution. \u201cThis is the first meeting with Putin since the Mueller report. And so if his own remarks are anything to go by, we may sort of expect to see him trying to open up a sort of deeper period of cooperation with Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Financial Times this week, Putin described Trump \u2014 who he called \u201cDonald\u201d \u2014 as \u201ca talented person\u201d who \u201cknows very well what his voters expect from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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