Putin defends Trump against ‘saboteurs’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hit out at ‘saboteurs’ criticising US President Donald Trump following a summit held in Helsinki, Finland.

He also accused “powerful” forces within the United States of trying to sabotage ties between Moscow and Washington.

In his speech while addressing Russian diplomats in Moscow on Thursday, Putin described his meeting with Trump earlier this week as “successful”, but warned relations between the two countries remain in “an extremely unsatisfactory state”.

“In many respects, [Russian-US relations] are even worse than during the Cold War,” said Putin.

Read also: Trump retracts comments on Russia’s meddling in US election

“We see that there are forces in the United States that are prepared to casually sacrifice Russian-US relations, to sacrifice them for their ambitions in an internal political battle.”

Trump is struggling to contain the outcry and confusion following the recently staged summit with Putin in Helsinki.

Reports say Trump is facing backlash over his failure to confront Putin concerning Russia’s 2016 U.S. election meddling.

Critics are even more miffed that Trump adopted his usual defiant posture two days after their Helsinki summit and called his detractors deranged.

 

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