President trump asked Putin a question about Russian intervention in elections in 2016. The meeting lasted for two hours and 15 minutes — much longer than expected.
A decision by trump to raise the issue of Russia’s intervention marked a significant shift in his position, because the day before, trump expressed doubts about the extent of this intervention.
— Summit of the heads of the leading economies in the world, mainly devoted to the discussion of critical issues such as climate change, global trade, North Korea, Syria and Ukraine.
— Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hamburg after a meeting held Thursday night demonstration called “Welcome to hell”, which turned violent. Reported injuries and the police and the demonstrators. Protesters set fire to cars.
— Trump wants the United States using its economic superiority dictated the rules of global trade, but other countries don’t seem to want to follow these conditions. And as if to emphasize this, the European Union and Japan agreed on Thursday the main provisions of the trade agreement, which will limit opportunities for American companies.
— The United States, Japan and South Korea (but not China) called for the adoption of a resolution of the UN Security Council, condemning the launch by North Korea of an Intercontinental missile, and summarily to impose sanctions to exert pressure on Pyongyang.
Trump has raised the issue of interference in elections
Told reporters as Secretary of state Rex Tillerson on Friday extended meeting of the two leaders, the tramp has changed his position and asked Putin about the intervention of his country in the us elections of 2016.
“It started with the fact that the expressed concerns of the American people in connection with the Russian intervention in elections in 2016, said Tillerson, speaking about trump. — He repeatedly asked him about it.”
As recently as Thursday, trump admitted that Russia may take action to influence the election results in his favor. But he also admitted the possibility that such actions were committed by other countries.
Vladimir Putin has rejected “any involvement in this,” added Tillerson. According to him, American officials will continue to discuss “General conditions” of the agreement, according to which Putin should promise to avoid such actions in the future.
Tillerson without much expressed optimism that Russia ever will recognize his intervention.
“It is possible that at the moment it is just an overwhelming discrepancy,” he said.
As reported closely associated with Putin, a news Agency Sputnik, and later the Russian leader, in preparation for a meeting with Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, told reporters that he and trump had a long talk about “cybersecurity”.
There was agreement on a partial ceasefire in Syria
As stated on Friday, after the first personal meeting of Putin trump with one of the senior officials of the us administration, the United States and Russia agreed on a ceasefire at the site in the South-West of Syria, which takes effect on Sunday.
This agreement was another attempt by American and Russian authorities to resolve the conflict in Syria and to facilitate an agreement about the end of the six-year civil war in the country.
According to officials of the US administration, trump and Putin will discuss the idea of partnership for the establishment in Syria of “security zones” in the framework of its action to open a new era of cooperation with Moscow.
The news, first reported by news Agency The Associated Press, after which it was confirmed by a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because officially, this agreement was not announced.
This agreement was the first sign of concrete results after the meeting with Putin, who was in the center of attention.
All eyes were on trump and Putin
Donald trump and Vladimir Putin met on Friday, and although their meeting eye to eye was not officially the main event of the summit of “Big twenty”, for many it could be considered as such. It lasted more than two hours — much longer than expected. Information about the issues discussed during the meeting, was provided to journalists immediately.
Before the meeting, the two leaders posing in front of cameras sitting next to him and reporters shouting questions.
The President and Putin “discussed a number of issues, and believe that everything is going very well,” said trump. “We look forward to many very positive developments for Russia and the United States, and for all stakeholders,” he added.
Vladimir Putin said that he was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with trump personally. “We talked several times on the phone… of Course, telephone conversations are not enough”, — said Putin.
“I hope like you said that our meeting will bring a positive result”, — he added.
The meeting was attended by six people: Donald trump with his Secretary Rex Tillerson, Vladimir Putin and his foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and two interpreters.
The Russians proposed to include in structure of participants of several official representatives of both sides, but the team trump has insisted that the meeting was like in a small circle — avoid information leakage and the emergence of later conflicting reports. This was told by one of the representatives of the administration who are directly knowledgeable about the details of the carefully planned meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality issue.
Even a brief handshake at the beginning of the day before the official opening of the event became the object of great attention.
With few obvious points of contact
In Warsaw, where on Thursday before flying to Hamburg trump delivered a speech, he gave Russia mixed signals. He urged Moscow to “stop destabilizing actions in Ukraine” and condemned by Russia’s support of “hostile regimes,” including Iran and Syria. He also expressed strong and unqualified support for the principle of NATO’s collective defence.
At the same time, he spoiled relations with the American intelligence services, saying that he didn’t know that Russia is the only one who is solely responsible for interfering in the elections of 2016.
In Moscow there was a feeling that Vladimir Putin will be able to outwit and outplay the American leader will prevail. “It’s a win-win situation for Putin,” said political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow center Andrei Kolesnikov, Putin although not everything was so smooth.
The leaders of the two countries took opposite positions on several important issues, including climate change and Western sanctions imposed against Russia after its annexation of Crimea. In addition, the Kremlin irritating missile defense system that the United States created in Eastern Europe.
They could find some common ground in the fight against terrorism. But in Syria, Moscow supports President Bashar al-Assad, while Washington still wants him to resign.
