Cold War ended, difficulties in Russia-US relations don't have any objective reasons - Putin

Published time: 16 Jul, 2018 15:17Edited time: 16 Jul, 2018 16:09

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U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. © Leonhard Foeger / Reuters

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There are no objective reasons for Moscow and Washington not to get along, said Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking first after more than three hours talks with US President Donald Trump.

“We’ve reviewed the current status and prospects of the Russia-US ties, key issues of the international agenda. It’s obvious that the bilateral relations are undergoing a difficult stage, but these difficulties, tensions between our countries have no objective reasons. The era of ideological confrontation between our countries is long gone, the situation in the world has changed drastically,” Putin said.

The talks reflected “shared wish” of the two presidents to fix the US-Russia relations and envision the first steps to do so, Putin added.

The US and Russia are facing new challenges nowadays, differing drastically from the ones of the Cold War era, Putin said, naming regional conflicts, spread of terrorism, organised crime, ecology and economy risks.

Trump again asked his Russian counterpart on the alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential elections, Putin revealed, stating that he replied exactly the same, as the last time. Russia has not meddled into the internal affairs of the US, he stated, adding that if any real evidence is provided, Moscow will cooperate on it.

Russia’s President described the talks with his US counterpart as “constructive and sincere,” adding, however, that such meeting was not enough to address “everything piled up.”

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