April 2, 2018
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, Friday, July 7, 2017, in Hamburg. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
April 2, 2018
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit, Friday, July 7, 2017, in Hamburg. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
MOSCOW — President Trump proposed meeting Vladimir Putin at the White House in a March phone call, the Kremlin said Monday, a fresh revelation about a conversation that stirred controversy for its friendly tone toward the Russian leader amid mounting tensions with the West.
After the March 20 phone call — in which Trump congratulated Putin for a reelection victory in a vote widely criticized as not free and fair — Trump said that the two leaders had discussed plans for a possible meeting.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that “a number of potential venues, including the White House,” were discussed for the summit.
A Kremlin aide, Yury Ushakov, disclosed the White House invitation in comments to Russian journalists on Monday. But he added that no preparations for such a meeting have taken place since the March 20 phone call, according to Russian news agencies.
Relations between Moscow and the West have been in a free fall since the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter in Britain March 4. British authorities have linked the attack to Russia, setting in motion tit-for-tat actions that have included expulsions of Russian diplomats from United States, the Europe Union and elsewhere.
“If everything will be alright, I hope that the Americans will not back away from their own proposal to discuss the possibility of holding a summit,” Ushakov said, according to state news agency RIA Novosti. “When our presidents spoke on the phone, it was Trump who proposed holding the first meeting in Washington, in the White House.”
Ushakov’s claim adds new detail to a presidential phone call that drew broad criticism last month. Trump congratulated Putin even though many international observers described Putin’s reelection victory as a sham, and despite the advice of White House advisers that he not offer congratulations.
“As the president himself confirmed on March 20, hours after his last call with President Putin, the two had discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’ at a number of potential venues, including the White House,” Sanders said in a statement after Ushakov’s comments. “We have nothing further to add at this time.”
After the March 20 phone call, Trump also drew condemnation at home and abroad for failing to raise the poisoning of the former spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter. The Kremlin denies having anything to do with the poisoning. Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain hospitalized.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have taken a further plunge since that March 20 phone call, as the West has sought to punish Russia for the Skripal poisoning. The United States and Russia traded diplomat expulsions and consulate closings, while U.S. allies who expelled Russian diplomats in solidarity also faced in-kind retaliation in Moscow.
Given the worsening environment, Kremlin aide Ushakov said Monday, “it is, of course, difficult to discuss the possibility of holding a summit,” Russian news agency Interfax reported.
“I hope that the situation will allow us to discuss this issue,” Ushakov added, referring to the planning for a Trump-Putin summit, according to Interfax. “We believe that it is rather important and necessary for both countries and for the entire international community.”
Since Trump became president, the two have met at the Group of 20 summit in Germany last July and, briefly, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November.
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