The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
– Meddling –
Regarding allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election that brought Trump to power, Putin said the US president had at their meeting accepted his denials.
“Trump asked a lot of questions (on the issue) and I answered him. It seems to me that he acknowledged and accepted” the answers, Putin said.
Trump has not spoken about the meeting other than to say earlier Saturday that it was “tremendous”.
According to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was present in the two-and-a-quarter-hour meeting, Putin and Trump had a “very robust and lengthy exchange” about the meddling claims.
Asked as he was leaving a news conference in Hamburg on Friday if Trump had accepted Putin’s denials, Tillerson did not answer.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, meanwhile told CNN that Putin was not to be believed.
“Everybody knows that Russia meddled in our elections,” she said.
Trump “wanted to basically look him in the eye, let him know that, yes, we know you meddled in our elections, yes, we know you did it and cut it out,” Haley said.
“And I think President Putin did exactly what we thought he would do, which is deny it. This is Russia trying to save face. And they can’t. They can’t.”
– ‘Positive chemistry’ –
Tillerson said that the two leaders had “connected very quickly” and there was a “very clear positive chemistry between the two”.
The topic that took up the most time was Syria, he said.
“There are so many issues on the table… Just about everything got touched upon… Neither one of them wanted to stop,” he said.
“I believe they even sent in the (US) First Lady at one point to see if she could get us out of there, but that didn’t work either… We did another hour. Clearly she failed.”
Trump’s wife Melania sat next to Putin at Friday’s G20 gala dinner, and photos gave the impression that the two appeared to be hitting it off.
