Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed that powerful American “forces” are attempting to undermine the outcome of his recent meeting with President Trump in Helsinki.
Mr. Putin made the accusations to a group of Russian ambassadors while discussing the impact of Monday’s summit with Mr. Trump in Finland, state-owned media reported.
“We will see how things go, as some forces in America are trying to undermine the results of the Helsinki meeting,” Mr. Putin said, according to TASS, a government-funded newswire.
“We can see forces in the United States, which would easily sacrifice Russian-American relationship for the sake of their ambitions in domestic political struggle in America. They would sacrifice the interests of the U.S. business, which loses contracts and ties in Russia, U.S. jobs, few as they may be, that rely on Russian-American cooperation,” Mr. Putin said, the state-owned RT outlet reported.
These supposed forces “would sacrifice the interests of their allies in Europe and in the Middle East, including the state of Israel,” Mr. Putin told ambassadors, according to RT. “They would sacrifice their own security.”
“We were taught that a statesperson should always prioritize core interests of his or her nation above everything else. Not so in this case. We see the forces in the U.S., who put their narrow group and party interests above those of their nation,” added Mr. Putin, according to RT’s translation.
“Our satirists would describe them as ’pathetic puny people,’ but they are neither,” he reportedly continued. “On the contrary, they are quiet powerful, if they can swindle millions of their countrymen to buy stories that would not normally stand to reason.”
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, attacked U.S. media outlets Thursday over their coverage of his first bilateral meeting with the Russian president this week.
“The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war. They are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin. We are doing MUCH better than any other country!” Mr. Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media.”
Mr. Trump met privately with his Russian counterpart Monday for roughly two hours, followed by a working lunch involving members of their administrations. Mr. Trump failed to publicly confront Mr. Putin about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential race during a press conference held after their meeting, prompting bipartisan condemnation in the days since.
The Russian government interfered in the 2016 race with the goal of helping elect Mr. Trump to office, U.S. intelligence officials previously assessed. Mr. Trump rejected that assessment as recently as Monday’s meeting, then walked back his remark amid a firestorm of criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.