Conversation of the President of the United States Donald trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the issue of the alleged interference of Moscow in American elections “at times strained”. This writes The New York Times, citing an unnamed representative of the White house.
A source told the paper that Putin “loudly demanded evidence” of representatives of the United States of Moscow’s interference in elections. The conversation on the subject lasted 40 minutes, after which trump said his Russian counterpart that it was time to move on to other issues, says the publication.
Putin himself on Saturday at a press conference said that trump paid a lot of attention to the question of alleged Russian interference in the election process in the United States. And, according to the Russian President, the head of the White house “took his arguments about non-interference of Moscow”.
July 7, us Secretary of state Rex Tillerson, describing the talks between Putin and trump, said that trump put pressure on Putin, asking the question about the alleged Moscow’s intervention in the American elections. In turn, foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov said that trump took Putin’s words that Russia did not interfere in the U.S. presidential election. Official Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged to believe the words of a Russian diplomat.
On Thursday, 6 July, speaking in Warsaw, Donald trump stated that the exact answer to the question about interference in the elections is unknown. “It could be Russia but it could also be other countries and other people”, — said the President of the United States.
The first meeting of Putin and trump took place on 7 July and lasted more than two hours. The sides discussed bilateral relations and key international problems.
Russia has repeatedly accused of meddling in the US presidential election with the help of hackers. American journalists and officials asserted that they allegedly kidnapped the correspondence Democrats, later posted online, and tried to penetrate into the electronic system of counting of votes.
Moscow denies such accusations. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not rule out that the mysterious hackers could be based in the United States.