The Donald Trump seen on television is different from the one in real life, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the G20 summit, adding that after his meeting with the US leader in Hamburg, he felt like relations between the two countries could at least partially be restored.
“As for personal relations, I think that they are established,” Putin said of his Friday meeting with Trump. “The Trump we see on TV is very much different from the real person.”
“I think that if we continue building our relations like during our conversation yesterday, there are grounds to believe that we’ll be able to – at least partially – restore the level of cooperation that we need,” Putin said. Putin said that the issue of alleged Russian meddling in the US election was addressed by Trump during their conversation. Putin reiterated that there is no reason to believe that Russia meddled in the US electoral process in 2016. “He [Trump] asked many questions on that subject. I answered those questions as best I could. I think he took it into consideration and agreed with me, but you should really ask him how he feels about it,” the Russian president said. Regarding cybersecurity, the Russian leader said that he and Trump “agreed that there should never be a situation of uncertainty, especially in the future, in this sphere.” “The US president and I agreed that we’ll create a working group and work together on how to jointly monitor security in cyberspace, how to ensure unconditional compliance with international legal norms, and how to prevent interference in internal affairs of foreign countries,” Putin said. “If we manage to organize this work – and I have no reasons to doubt that – then there will be no more speculation on this topic [of Russia meddling],” he added.
Speaking on the allegations of Moscow’s interference in the affairs of foreign countries, Putin blamed the foreign media for doing exactly that in Russia. “If you analyze the German, French and European media, in general – they’re the ones who are constantly meddling in our internal affairs. But we feel confident and it doesn’t bother us,” he explained. The situation in Syria was also addressed during the press conference, with Putin saying the new US administration had a “more pragmatic” stance on the issue. Source:
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