Trump says no discussion of lifting of sanctions with Putin

MOSCOW, Jul 10 (PRIME) -- U.S. President Donald Trump did not discuss lifting of sanctions against Russia during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on July 7, he said in his Twitter blog after the meeting.

“Sanctions were not discussed at my meeting with President Putin. Nothing will be done until the Ukrainian and Syrian problems are solved!” Trump said.

Trump also said that he challenged Putin over suspicions of intervention of state-sponsored Russian hackers in the U.S. presidential elections. “I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I've already given my opinion,” he said.

The meeting lasted for two hours instead of the scheduled 30 minutes. The New York Times reported, citing an official allegedly informed by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, that the discussion of issues concerning the hackers lasted for 40 minutes and turned into heated debates.

Russia’s presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told channel Rossiya 1 that deliberations about the details of the meeting are absurd. “All these deliberations in the New York Times that you have mentioned are a kind of absurd. I repeat that there were two people and how can the New York Times know how many minutes things were discussed and who raised his voice and when, and whether he did – I mean, all this is a telltale that there are big fanciful writers there who do all they cannot let the Russophobia wave back down.”

Trump and Putin also discussed establishment of a working group on cybersecurity, Trump said after the meeting.

Trump also said in the context of the meeting that an agreement on a ceasefire in Syria was signed and seems to be working.

Putin declined to comment on the details of the meeting with Trump, saying that this is not customary during meetings at this level.

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