Trump calls the European Union, Russia, and China ‘foes’ of the US

U.S. President Donald Trump says in an interview that President Vladimir Putin is “probably” a “ruthless person”, in remarks made ahead of his summit with the Russian leader.

The president’s comments to CBS come directly before Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday in Helsinki, Finland.

The two leaders will be joined only by their interpreters and will be the first-ever summit between the pair one-on-one, although they have met previously during multilateral talks. Since then, he has consistently questioned whether the country was really to blame, contradicting the judgment of 17 USA intelligence agencies. Russia’s constitution forbids the extradition of its own citizens. The president says he has “low expectations” for the summit. “But certainly, I’ll be asking about it”.

Though the results from the North Korea summit are debatable, Trump has told confidants he believed it was a masterstroke.

The president said he might ask for Putin to send the dozen Russians who were indicted by the Mueller probe to the United States.

Russian Federation reacted positively to a June 12 meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump and Putin will likely also discuss two arms control pacts – the INF Treaty and the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), said U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, who declined to address whether they might strike a deal on either pact, which are planks of U.S. The president has continued his solicitousness toward Putin, even suggesting the US adversary could potentially be a friend some day. Add Donald Trump as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Donald Trump news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced a grand jury indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officers on charges of hacking the computer networks of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

He has said he expects talks with Mr Putin to produce “nothing bad” and “maybe some good”, but has been urged to raise the death of a woman who was exposed to novichok in Amesbury and criminal charges being brought against a dozen Russians accused of hacking Democratic Party emails during the 2016 United States presidential election.

Trump has furiously denied his campaign colluded in the alleged interference, and has generally denounced the special investigation as a “witch hunt” promoted by his enemies to delegitimise his victory.

The charges shine an even greater spotlight on Trump’s treatment of Putin, who has repeatedly denied Russian Federation sought to intervene or skew the US election that Trump, a Republican, unexpectedly won.

The outlines of what would be a hugely controversial deal have emerged in press reports that suggest Putin is keen to exploit Trump’s desire to pull U.S. troops out of Syria by offering to rein in Iranian influence there.

“Russia, If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing”, Trump said that day.

Trump and Putin will also meet Finnish President Sauli Niinisto respectively on Monday, and the whole event will end up with a press conference by Niinisto on Monday evening. “Now you wouldn’t think of the European Union but they’re a foe”, he said.

“Even if we assume that it happened and Russian Federation was responsible – which very few people here believe – what do we do?” he said.