Five key takeaways
At their much-anticipated presidential summit, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were at pains to talk up a reconciliation in fractured ties between the United States and Russia. But Trump's failure to condemn the Kremlin's alleged role in directing a campaign of manipulation in the US elections will dominate coverage in Washington, where it triggered outrage. Here are five takeaways from the news conference that followed their first summit, in the Finnish capital Helsinki:
MEDDLING, MOI?
Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections, Putin said, rejecting the verdict of US intelligence chiefs that Moscow hacked the Democrats' emails and leaked them to help propel Trump to the White House. Trump appeared to buy the denial, to the outrage of opponents and even some Republicans back home, despite his intelligence advice and a widening probe by US special counsel Robert Mueller that indicted 12 alleged Russian agents last week. Instead, Trump welcomed an offer by Putin for US agents to indirectly grill the indicted Russians by submitting their questions to Russian officials. Both leaders rejected any talk of pre-election collusion, and Putin also dismissed the idea that his government holds compromising material on Trump.
FRESH START TO TIES, AGAIN
As secretary of state, Trump's 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton famously pressed a large button marked "reset" to denote a fresh start to ties with Russia. Relations, however, swiftly lurched from bad to worse. This time, according to Trump and Putin, it's different. The summit was "only the beginning", the US president said. "Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago."
NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
Heading into the summit, Trump emphasised his wish to tackle a developing race between the two countries to modernise their nuclear arsenals. Nothing specific emerged, but Putin said it was "necessary to work together to interact on the disarmament agenda", including a return to existing treaties to limit long-range and intermediate nuclear forces. For his part, Trump said nuclear proliferation was "one of the most critical challenges facing humanity" while lauding his own role in bringing North Korea to the table. Nothing concrete emerged from the leaders.
GLOBAL HOTSPOTS
Trump and Putin appear to have come to some kind of arrangement to work together and with Israel to support a ceasefire in southern Syria, suggesting that Washington is backing off its demand that Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad step down. They talked about meaningful steps without specifying them. Putin said they had agreed to differ on Iran, Ukrain.
FOOTBALL
After Trump congratulated Putin on the successful staging of the World Cup in Russia, the Kremlin boss tossed him a tournament football in a slightly strained attempt to lighten the mood after a barrage of questions about Syria and meddling. Trump cheerfully said he hoped US would host an equally successful competition, and promised to give the ball to his 12-year-old son Barron.
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