Vladimir Putin: Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Negotiations with the President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald Trump, were held in a frank and businesslike atmosphere, I consider them very successful and useful.
We examined the current state and prospects of Russian-American relations, key issues on the international agenda. It is obvious to all that bilateral relations are going through a difficult period, but these difficulties, the current tense atmosphere, have no objective reasons.
“The Cold War” has long ended, the era of acute ideological confrontation between the two countries has gone far into the past, the situation in the world has changed dramatically. Today, both Russia and the United States face completely different challenges: this is a dangerous imbalance of international security mechanisms, stability, regional crises, the spread of threats of terrorism and cross-border crime, criminality, growing problems in the global economy, environmental and other risks. Coping with all this is possible only by combining efforts. I hope that we will come to an understanding of this and with American partners.
Today’s talks reflected our joint desire with President Trump to rectify the negative situation in bilateral relations, to outline the first steps for their improvement, the restoration of an acceptable level of trust and the return to cooperation of the previous level on all issues of mutual interest.
As the largest nuclear powers, we have a special responsibility for international security. I consider it important, we talked about this, to debug a dialogue on the issues of strategic stability and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We sent a note to our American colleagues with a number of concrete proposals on this topic.
We consider it necessary to further work together to work out the entire complex of the military-political and disarmament dossier: this is the extension of the Strategic Arms Treaty, the dangerous situation surrounding the development of elements of the global system of American missile defense, the implementation of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate and Shorter-Range Missiles and the Subject of Weapons space.
We are for continuation of cooperation in the field of combating terror and in the field of ensuring cybersecurity. And I want to note that our special services are very successful. The most recent example is close operational interaction with a group of American security experts in the framework of the World Cup, which ended yesterday in Russia. Generally speaking, it is useful to translate contacts through the special services to a system basis. Reminded the President of the United States of the proposal to re-create a working group on antiterror.
Many talked about regional crises. Not everywhere and not in all our positions coincide, but there are also many overlapping interests. It is necessary to seek common ground, to work more closely, including at international forums.
Of course, they talked about regional crises, including Syria. As for Syria, the solution of the problem of establishing peace and harmony in this country could become an example of successful joint work.
Russia and the United States, of course, can take the lead on this issue and organize cooperation to overcome the humanitarian crisis, to help the return of refugees to their homes.
For effective cooperation on the Syrian plot, we have all the necessary elements. I will mention that the Russian and American military have acquired a useful experience of interaction and coordination, established operational communication channels, which allowed to prevent dangerous incidents and unpredictable clashes on the battlefield, in the air and on the ground.
I would also like to note that after the final defeat of the terrorists in south-western Syria, in the so-called southern zone, the situation on the Golan Heights should be fully brought into line with the agreement of 1974 on the separation of Israeli and Syrian troops.
This will restore calm to the Golan, restore the ceasefire between the Syrian Arab Republic and Israel, and secure the security of the State of Israel. Mr. President paid special attention to this today.
I want to confirm that Russia is interested in this development of events and will adhere to precisely this position. Thus, a step will be taken towards the establishment of a just and lasting peace on the basis of United Nations Security Council resolution 338.
It is good that the problem of the Korean peninsula began to be gradually resolved. In many respects this was made possible by the fact that President Trump personally joined the settlement, building a dialogue in the spirit of cooperation, rather than confrontation.
During the talks, they spoke directly about our concern over the withdrawal of the United States from a comprehensive plan of action to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue. The American side knows our position, it remains unchanged. I emphasize that thanks to the nuclear deal, Iran has become the most verifiable country in the world under the control of the IAEA. This effectively ensures the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program, contributes to strengthening the non-proliferation regime.
When discussing the internal crisis, they drew attention to the importance of conscientious implementation of Minsk agreements. The United States could more firmly insist on this and set up the Ukrainian leadership for this work.
Particular attention was paid to the economy. Interest in cooperation on the part of business circles of both countries is certainly there. The American business delegation was one of the largest at the May St. Petersburg Economic Forum. It was attended by more than 500 representatives of the business community of the United States.
To promote mutual trade and investment, President Trump and I agreed to create a high-level group that would unite the captains of Russian and American business. Entrepreneurs know better how to build mutually beneficial cooperation. Let them think what can be done, and make their proposals on this matter.
President Trump once again touched on the topic of so-called Russian interference in the electoral processes in the United States. I had to repeat what I said many times, including at a personal meeting with the President: The Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere in American internal affairs, including electoral processes. Any concrete materials, if they are presented, we are ready to consider together – for example, within the framework of the working group on cybersecurity, the creation of which we talked with the President at a meeting in Hamburg.
And, of course, it’s time to unfreeze Russian-American ties on the basis of public organizations, in the cultural and humanitarian sphere. Most recently, you know, we had a delegation of US congressmen, but this is perceived almost as a historical event, and this should be an ordinary current event.
In this regard, we expressed an invitation to the President of the United States to think not only about practical issues, but also about the philosophy of building long-term bilateral relations. It would be useful to draw on such a process the experience of experts who know the history well, the nuances of Russian-American interaction.
The idea is to form an expert council of influential Russian and American political scientists, scientists, former prominent diplomats and military, who would search for common ground and understand how to bring bilateral cooperation to a stable positive trajectory.
In general, we are satisfied with our first full-scale meeting. Let me remind you that before that we only briefly communicated in international forums. We had a good talk with President Trump – I hope they understand each other better, and I’m grateful to Donald for that.
Of course, numerous problems remain, and we could not clear all the debris, it was impossible to do at the first meeting, but I believe that we took the first important step in this direction.
In conclusion, I would like to note that our Finnish hosts greatly contributed to the creation of a working atmosphere for the talks. We are grateful to the leadership of Finland, the Finnish people, the people of Helsinki for what has been done. We know that we have brought a lot of inconvenience to the inhabitants of Helsinki and are apologizing for it.
Thank you for your attention.
D. Trump: I just finished the meeting with President Putin. We discussed various critical issues that are important for both countries. We had an open and productive dialogue, very well passed this dialogue.
Before I begin, I want to thank the President of Finland, Niinisto, for accepting us and allowing us to hold the summit. President Putin said how well they coped with the work, how nice it is for us to stay here.
I also want to greet Russia and President Putin for having coped well with the World Cup. It was one of the best, and your team also played well, you did a good job.
Today we continue the tradition of American diplomacy. Since the first days of our country, we realized that diplomacy is given an advantage. Dialogue is very important not only for the United States, but also for Russia, as well as for the whole world.
The disagreements between our countries are known, President Putin and I discussed them in detail today. But if we want to solve the problems facing our world, then we must find a way of cooperation and find common ground.
For a long time and recently we have seen the consequences of when diplomacy is left out of attention. We also saw the benefits of cooperation during the last century, when countries fought shoulder to shoulder during World War II. Even when there was a “cold war”, the world looked completely different, not the same as today.
The United States and Russia were able to maintain a very lasting dialogue, but our relationship was never worse than what we see now. However, this changed about four hours ago. I really believe in it. Nothing is politically easier than simply refusing to meet, to refuse to negotiate, but this will not yield any results.
As a President, I can not make decisions about foreign policy in order to reconcile critics, democrats, and the media, who do not want to do anything except obstruction. A constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia provides an opportunity to open a new path to peace and stability in the world.
I will most likely take political risk on myself in order to achieve peace, instead of risking the world and betraying politics. As President, I first of all think about what is best for America, which is better for the American people.
During today’s meeting, I spoke with President Putin about Russia’s interference in our elections. I think it was better to tell him straight in the face. We spent much time discussing this issue, and President Putin, probably, wanted to discuss this issue. And he very clearly understands this question.
We also have a critical issue – the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Last month, with Kim Jong Ne, I discussed the issue of denuclearization of North Korea. And today I am sure that President Putin and Russia also want to finish this problem and are ready to work with us on this issue. I thank them for that.
The President and I discussed issues of radical Islamism, which affects both Russia and the United States. Terrible acts of terrorism. We agreed to continue communication between our security departments in order to overcome this evil. We talked [about a terrorist attack] planned in St. Petersburg, and we [our special services] were able to stop it. We found them, discovered and stopped a potential attack. I also thanked President Putin for calling me after that.
I stressed the importance of putting pressure on Iran to stop its campaign of violence and nuclear aspirations in the region, in the Middle East.
We discussed the crisis in Syria. That’s a very difficult question. Cooperation between our countries can potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. I also said that the US will not allow Iran to take advantage of our successful campaign against IGIL. In fact, we almost completely eradicated IGIL in the region.
We also agreed that the representatives of our National Security Council will discuss the issues that we discussed today, and the progress that we started here in Helsinki will continue.
Today’s meeting is just the beginning of a long process, but we made the first step towards a better future, in which there will be a lasting dialogue and many reflections. Our expectations are based on a real goal, we desire friendship, cooperation and peace. I think that I can say this not only on behalf of America, but also on behalf of Russia.
President Putin, I want to thank you once again for joining me in this discussion, and in that you extended and continued the open dialogue between our countries. There is a long tradition of diplomacy between Russia and the United States for the common good, and this is a very constructive day.
Today there were some very constructive hours spent together, and this is important for both our countries, it is important to continue this conversation. We agreed that, most likely, we will meet frequently in the future, and we hope that we will solve all the problems that we discussed today.
Once again, President Putin, thank you.
Question: I have a question for the President of the United States.
During your recent European tour, you said that the implementation of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline project and other projects makes Europe hostage to Russia. You offered to save Europe from this dependence by supplying American liquefied gas.
This cold winter showed the vitality of the current energy supply system in Europe, while the United States was forced to buy additional volumes of liquefied gas, including Russian, for Boston.
I have a question. Is your idea more political? Will not it lead to the fact that in the energy supply system of Europe a hole is formed, in which, first of all, the consuming countries?
And the second question, if you will allow. Before the meeting with Mr. Putin, you called him a rival, but left the hope that, perhaps, you will be able to bring these relations into friendly relations. Did you succeed?
D. Trump: I called him a rival, a good rival. He’s a good contender really. “Opponent” is actually a compliment. I think that we will compete when we talk about the pipeline. I’m not sure if this is better for Germany’s interests or not, but this is their decision, and we will compete.
You know, the United States now or in the near future will be, but already now are the largest state in the world of oil and gas. We sell liquefied gas, we have to compete with the pipeline, and we will compete successfully, although they have some advantage. I discussed this issue with Angela Merkel in rather harsh tones.
But I also know the essence of the matter. They have a close source, and we will talk about this. We have many sources. The US is a completely different country now compared to what it was several years ago. We will be able to extract what we mine. I believe that we will be very strong competitors.
Vladimir Putin: Let me add two words.
We spoke with the President, including on this topic. We know the position of the President. But I believe that we, as the largest oil and gas power, and the United States are also such a country, could work constructively to regulate international markets, because we are not interested in the extraordinary drop in prices below the lower limit. Our producers will suffer from this, incidentally, including in the United States, referring to shale oil and gas.
For a certain framework, the profitability of production disappears. We are also not interested in excessively high prices, because this will kill reprocessing, engineering and other branches of the economy. We here have something to talk about, there is a field for cooperation. This is the first.
The second, with regard to the “Nord Stream – 2”. Mr. President expressed concerns about the possible disappearance of transit through Ukraine. I assured Mr. President that Russia was ready to preserve this transit.
Moreover, we are ready to extend the transit contract, which expires next year, if the dispute between business entities is resolved in the Stockholm Arbitration Court.
Question: Mr. President, you wrote on Twitter today that the stupidity, stupidity of the US and Muller are responsible for the decline in relations between the US and Russia. Do you think that Russia is responsible for everything or for something? What are they responsible for?
D. Trump: Yes, I believe that both sides are responsible for the situation. I think that the US is acting silly, we should have started this dialogue long ago, even before I came to power. I believe that we are all guilty, and the United States is now actually building this relationship with Russia.
We have a chance of cooperation, this stopping the spread of nuclear weapons – this is ultimately the most important issue that we can work on. I think that you, and we made mistakes, and the investigation is terrible for our country. I think that this does not allow us to unite, that is, there was no collusion, it divides us, and everyone knows about it.
People will show that, in fact, this is in no way connected with the election campaign. It is very difficult to find someone who is associated with the campaign. We have a clean campaign, I won, I won against Hillary Clinton and, frankly, I do not even want to talk about it anymore. We just won this race.
Just unpleasant that there is over it some kind of cloud. People understand. But we discussed this issue. It is important that there is no collusion, and this negatively, in turn, affects the relations between the two largest nuclear powers: we have 90 percent of the nuclear weapons in the two countries combined. It’s just amazing what’s happening with the investigation.
Question: President Putin, can I continue the question?
Why should Americans and Trump believe in you that Russia did not interfere in the elections in 2016? I proceed from reconnaissance data.
Will you allow the extradition of 12 Russian citizens?
D. Trump: You know, probably, that this concept was actually put forward as a reason why the Democrats lost. In fact, they had to win, because the electoral college, of course, gives more advantage to the Democrats than the Republicans, but [we] won significantly – 306 against 232. And this fight was fair, we coped well with it.
Honestly, I will ask the President to answer the second part of your question. I just want to repeat it once more, I repeated it before: there was no collusion, I did not know the President, and there was no one to conspire with. There was no collusion. All these 12 or 14 – it has nothing to do with the elections.
They admitted that these people are not connected with the election campaign, but the reader can believe. Even the people who are involved in this, maybe some told something. In one case, the FBI said that no one lied, there was no lie, although someone said that someone was lying there. But we had an excellent election campaign.
V.Putin: As to who to believe, and who does not believe and whether one can at all believe: no one can be trusted. Where did you get that President Trump trusted me, and I fully trust him? He defends the interests of the United States of America. I am defending the interests of the Russian Federation.
We have coinciding interests, and we are looking for common ground. We have issues in which we are still at variance. We are looking for options how to reconcile these differences, how to make our work constructive. We should rely not on the momentary political interests of some internal political forces in our countries, but on facts.
Tell me at least one fact that speaks of some kind of collusion during the election campaign in the United States. This is complete nonsense. We were not acquainted, the President just said this. The fact that in Russian society during the election campaign in the United States has a certain opinion regarding candidates, this goes without saying. What is unusual?
Today’s President Trump as a candidate spoke about the need to restore Russian-American relations. Naturally, in Russian society there was sympathy for this candidate, and different people could show this sympathy in different ways. Is it not natural to have sympathy for a person who wants to build relations with our country? This is normal.
We heard accusations against the company Concord. As far as I know, this firm hired American lawyers, and all charges against her fall apart in the American court. You see what happens in American courts. That’s what you need to rely on, not on rumors. This is the first.
The second, as for the 12 employees of allegedly our special services, I do not know anything about this yet. I need to find out what is going on. The President also raised this issue in front of me.
What can I say? We, in general, discussed, but what comes to my mind and what can I offer? There is, there is an agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation of 1999 on mutual assistance in criminal matters. This contract is, by the way, working effectively.
We are on demand of foreign countries to hundreds, 150 criminal cases are excited in Russia. A few years ago, our former Minister of the Atomic Industry was extradited by the United States to the Russian Federation and convicted by a Russian court. This is a working contract. This agreement provides for certain procedures for joint work.
We can suggest that your respective commission, headed by the special prosecutor … as the name – Mr. Mueller? Under the terms of this agreement, he can send us an official request with the aim of conducting interrogations of those people whom he considers guilty of committing some kind of offense. Employees of our prosecutor’s office and investigative bodies can conduct these interrogations and send relevant materials to the United States.
Moreover, we can take one more step forward. We can allow the official representatives of the United States, including this commission of Mr. Mueller, to be present at these interrogations. But then, in this case, we will certainly raise the question of whether these actions are reciprocal.
We will expect from the American side that they interrogate those officials, including representatives of the special services of the United States, whom we suspect of committing unlawful actions in the territory of the Russian Federation, in the presence of our investigators.
What do I mean? A well-known case of Hermitage Capital firm of Mr. Browder. According to our investigation, a group of persons, Mr Browder’s business partners, illegally earned more than $ 1.5 billion in Russia, did not pay taxes either in Russia or in the United States, but they transferred the money to the United States: $ 400 million was sent to the campaign of Mrs. Browder Clinton. These are official data, which are present in their reports. 400 million sent. But this is their business, perhaps they did it legally, but the money was received illegally. We have reason to believe that some members of the intelligence services of the United States accompanied these illegal transactions.
This is only one step forward. We can talk about expanding our cooperation. Please, options are possible, they are stipulated in the relevant intergovernmental agreement.
Question: Mr. President, did you want President Trump to win the elections?
V.Putin: Because he spoke about the normalization of Russian-American relations …
Question: Good evening!
The first question to Mr. Trump in English. Mr. President, can you set out in more detail, if possible, specific agreements on how Russia and the United States will cooperate in Syria? Are there any agreements or was this issue discussed?
If you will allow, Vladimir Vladimirovich the question in Russian. Since today the theme of football has already been touched several times, I will ask a question in football language. Mr. Pompeo said a little earlier that when the conversation is about cooperation in Syria, now the ball is on the side of Russia. Vladimir Vladimirovich, is this really so? In that case, if so, how did you take advantage of this possession?
D. Trump: You know, I will answer the first part of the question. We worked with Israel for many years, many decades, no one, no country was closer to them than we. President Putin is also helping Israel, and we both spoke with Netanyahu, they would like to do something about Syria, in particular with regard to security in Israel. In this respect, we would like to cooperate in order to help Israel.
Israel will work with us, and we will work together. And I think that when you look at all the progress that has been made in some areas, in particular, the eradication of IGIL, 98-99 percent of the territories are actually liberated, in fact, Russia helped us to some extent. You work with Israel, and working with Israel is a good thing. Creating security for Israel is something that I would like to see with Putin.
And I want to add one more thing – helping people. I saw reports, photos, practically everything saw what was happening there. If we can do something in order to help the people of Syria to return to homes or some kind of humanitarian aid, that’s what we were talking about – humanitarian assistance. We will both be interested in this, and we will do it.
Remark: I’m sorry, but so far there is no specific agreement between the armed forces.
D. Trump: Our armed forces are cooperating well. Moreover, they are doing well, better than our political leaders, for many years, they are doing well, they are well coordinating the actions in Syria and elsewhere.
V.Putin: We said, I already mentioned this – about cooperation in the humanitarian field, in the humanitarian sphere. Only yesterday I discussed this issue with the President of France, Mr. Macron, and we agreed with him that we will intensify this work with European countries, including France.
We, on our part, are ready to provide military transport planes for humanitarian supplies. Talked about this today and with President Trump, and I think that there is something to work on.
What is important? A huge number of refugees are concentrated now in the states bordering Syria: in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan. If we help people to return to their homes, the migration pressure on the countries of the European Union, on other countries, can often decrease. I think this is extremely important from all points of view: from the humanitarian, and from the point of view of resolving the problems of refugees.
But on the whole I really agree with the President. Our military works very successfully with each other. I hope that they will be able to negotiate as it has been so far. We will work in the Astana format, I mean Russia, Turkey and Iran. Today I also informed Donald about this.
But we are ready to match these efforts with the efforts of the so-called small group of states, so that the process becomes broad and that we have maximum chances for ultimate success.
As for the fact that the ball is on our side in Syria. Mr. President just said that we finished and successfully held the World Cup. About the ball …
I want to pass this ball to the President, now the ball is on his side (passes the soccer ball), especially since the US will have to hold the World Cup in 2026.
D. Trump: You are absolutely right. Yes, we will conduct it. We hope that we will also cope well with this work.
And this will be for my son Barron. Melania, take the ball for him.
Question: Question for each President.
President Trump, you are the first. Now President Putin said that they did not interfere in any way in the 2016 elections. All intelligence says that Russia has intervened. First question: who do you believe in?
Second question. Now that the whole world is watching, you will tell President Putin: give up what happened in 2016, and never do it in the future?
D. Trump: I’m wondering why the FBI server has never looked. Why did the FBI say they had to consider what happened at the office of the National Committee. I wrote about this in Twitter and spoke in social networks: where is the server? I want to know where this server is and what’s on the server.
Based on this, all I can do is just ask a question. Dencas and others came to me, they turned to me, said that they thought it was Russia. President Putin just said that this is not Russia.
I must say the following. I see no reason, but I want to see the server. I believe both sides. I believe that this will continue for a certain period of time. I think that this can not happen without understanding what happened to the servers of the Pakistani citizen who worked in our democratic National Committee, what happened with the e-mail of Hillary Clinton: 33 thousand e-mail just disappeared, disappeared. It’s a shame!
We can not get and get these 33 thousand e-mails. I trust my intelligence, but I want to say that President Putin very strongly denied today. He gave an excellent proposal. He said that the people who are working on the case should work with their investigators about these 12 suspects.
Vladimir Putin: Let me add two words.
I also worked in intelligence, and I know how the relevant dossiers are drawn up. This is the first.
The second. I consider Russia to be a democratic state. I hope you do not deny this and your country, the United States of America. Is the United States a democratic state? And if this is so, then the final conclusion in a dispute of this kind can be rendered only by the court, and not by the operational services.
The company I mentioned, “Concord” and one of our restaurateurs, he is engaged in restaurant business, is accused of interference. But they do not represent the Russian state. Even if so, I can imagine. So what? I have already given examples.
You have a lot of people, including a large, billion-dollar state – Mr. Soros, for example, he interferes everywhere, but what’s this? Is this not the position of the American state? No. This is the position of a private person. So it is here. There is a trial in the American court, the final instance is always just the court. Let them understand, we’ll see.
This applies only to individuals, not to the state. And the latest accusations against the alleged employees of our special services – please, I answered it. There is an intergovernmental agreement, please send an official request, let the commission of Mueller send us a request, we will conduct the relevant work and answer.
It is possible and expand this cooperation, I already said, but then only on a reciprocal basis. We, then, will also expect from the American side access to those persons whom we consider employees of the special services. Let’s discuss in detail and not use Russian-American relations as a bargaining chip in the domestic political struggle.
Question: I have questions to President Putin, two questions to you.
Can you say that President Trump told you or hinted to you regarding the official recognition of the Crimea as a territory of Russia?
Second. Does the Russian Government have any compromising material against President Trump and his family?
Vladimir Putin: President Trump has a well-known position in the Crimea, and he adheres to it. He speaks about the illegality of the annexation of the Crimea to the Russian Federation. We have a different point of view. We believe that we held a referendum in strict accordance with international law, with the Charter of the United Nations. For us, for the Russian Federation, this issue is closed. First.
The second, as for some compromising materials. I heard about this, allegedly we were collecting dirt on Mr. Trump when he came to Moscow. Dear colleague, when Mr. Trump came to Moscow, I did not even know that he was there. I respect President Trump as the head of the American state, but when he came as a businessman, I did not even know that he was in Moscow.
At the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, over 500 American businessmen came to St. Petersburg, with the highest rank, I do not even remember their names. Also what, you think, we on each of them will organize operative work and we collect any kompromat? It’s hard to imagine the bigger nonsense, it’s just hard to imagine. Please throw this hull out of your head.
D. Trump: I must say that if they had this material, they would have provided. If someone saw Peter Strak, when he testified during the last few days, when I was in Brussels, it’s just a shame for the FBI. This is actually a shame for our country. And we must say that it was actually a “witch hunt”.