Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed Friday that he has invited President Trump to Moscow.
“We are ready for such meetings, we are ready to invite President Trump to Moscow. He has this invitation already and I told him about it,” Putin said at the BRICs summit in Johannesburg, noting that there “has to be necessary conditions.”
“You can critique him for what he does and many people do that but one thing is clear, he is willing to fulfill his campaign promises,” Putin said.
Putin also claimed that his meeting with Trump this month in Helsinki was “useful.”
Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki this month received backlash when said during a joint press conference that he had no reason not to believe Putin, who stressed to him that the Russian government was not to blame for interference in the 2016 election.
The comments were at odds with a January 2017 report from the U.S. intelligence community that found Russian agents conducted a massive influence operation to sway the election.
Trump later admitted that he misspoke when he said he didn’t “see any reason why” Russia would have meddled in the 2016 election, noting he believes the U.S. intelligence community assessment.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
Last week, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced that Trump and Putin could meet in Washington as soon as this fall.
But national security adviser John Bolton announced this week that the White House’s invitation for Putin to visit the U.S. will be postponed until after special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has been completed, perhaps around the beginning of next year.
