Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
Update: As part of the 2+ hour discussion between presidents Trump and Putin, AP reports that the Russian president asked for “proof and evidence” of Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 election which Russia denies. The request was made after Trump confronted Putin about Moscow’s election meddling during their first face-to-face meeting in Germany on Friday, according to Rex Tillerson who was present in the meeting. The secretary of state told reporters afterward that Trump opened the conversation by “raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
Putin once again denied Russian involvement, Tillerson said, but Trump “pressed” him on the matter “on more than one occasion.”
‘President Putin denied such involvement as I think he has in the past,’ he continued.
The Russians, speaking after the meeting, claimed that Trump accepted the denial – but Tillerson did not. Instead he said the issue may simply be an ‘intractable disagreement.’ Tillerson also said the Russians pushed Trump for proof and evidence of meddling, something which the president himself had doubted in public as recently as Thursday.
“The president at this point pressed him and felt like at this point, let’s talk about how do we go forward,’ Tillerson said.
Trump and Putin agreed to explore a “framework” around which they can work to better understand these types of cyberthreats, the U.S. diplomat said.
“The two leaders agreed that this is a substantial hindrance on the ability of us to move Russian-U.S. relationships forward and agreed to exchange further work ?regarding commitments of noninterference in the affairs of the United States and our democratic process as well as those of other countries,” Tillerson said. “So more work to be done in that regard.”
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who was in the meeting, said afterward that Trump accepted Putin’s assurances that Russia didn’t interfere in the election. But Tillerson, who has publicly called out Russia for election interference in the past, said he was ‘not dismissing the issue in any way’ and did not echo that language.
The secretary of state acknowledged that Putin’s insistence that Russia did not interfere would leave the two countries at an impasse, at least for now. “It’s not clear to me that we will ever come to some agreed-upon resolution of that question between the two nations,” he said.
“So the question is, what do we do now?”
We are confident that the US press, which will not let this topic drop, will come up with some suggestions.
* * *
Earlier
Following their first ever, 2+ hour meeting which was originally supposed to last only 30-40 minutes, the question on everyone’s mind was what did the two discuss.
So, in addition to the previously discussed ceasefire agreement in Southwest Syria unexpectedly announced by the two nations, speaking at the beginning of his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Vladimir Putin said that during his first meeting with US President Donald Trump, the two discussed Syria, Ukraine, counterterrorism, and drumroll, the “fight against cyber crime.”
“I had a very lengthy conversation with the President of the United States, there were a lot of issues such as Ukraine, Syria, other problems, some bilateral issues”, according to Interfax news agency. “We again returned to the issues of fighting terrorism and cybersecurity,” Putin added.
Elaborating after the meeting, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump repeatedly pressed Putin on the matter over the course of their meeting (see below for details).
Putin denied Russia’s involvement, and according to a parallel comment from Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, “Trump accepted Putin’s assurance of no election hacking.”
Or as Interfax put it:
- TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGES ANTI-RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN U.S. ALREADY LOOKING ODD, THAT HE ACCEPTS PUTIN’S STATEMENTS ON THIS MATTER – LAVROV: IFX
However, it appears Lavrov may have taken some artistic liberty, because according to NBC’s chief White House correspondent, one administration official has said Lavrov’s comment is “not accurate”
Pushback already from Trump administration: one official tells @NBCNews Lavrov’s “not accurate” w/this comment –> https://t.co/URIsFPQYWT
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) 7 July 2017
Additionally, Tillerson also discussed the ceasefire deal in Syria:
“A cease-fire has been entered into,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters. This is the “first indication of the U.S. and Russia being able to work together in Syria,” he said.
Until now, Putin and Trump had only spoken on the phone. They were not alone: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were also present at the talks.
* * *
Earlier, during the press photo session, Trump told the media that “President Putin and I have been discussing various things, and I think it’s going very well.”
“We’ve had some very, very good talks, we are going to have a talk now and obviously that will continue,” Trump added, saying there are hopes of “a lot of very positive things happening.”
“It’s an honor to be with you, thank you,” Trump concluded, offering his hand to Putin.
“I’m delighted to be able to meet you personally Mr. President,” Putin countered. “And I hope, as you have said, our meeting will yield positive result.”
“Spasibo [thank you],” the US leader added in Russian.
Addressing Trump, Putin then said that although the two leaders have “several times talked over the phone, including on some very important bilateral and international issues,” phone talks were “obviously not enough.” Meetings in person are “necessary” if the two countries want to resolve the “most pressing issues,” Putin added.
* * *
Finally, some additional details first from Rex Tillerson, courtesy of Bloomberg:
- TILLERSON: U.S., RUSSIA, JORDAN REACHED CEASEFIRE IN SW SYRIA
- RUSSIA HAS SAME INTEREST IN STABLE SYRIA AS U.S.: TILLERSON
- TRUMP NOTED SANCTIONS BILL ONGOING IN PUTIN TALKS: TILLERSON
- NO LONG-TERM ROLE FOR ASSAD, HIS FAMILY, IN SYRIA: TILLERSON
- RUSSIA-U.S. DIFFERENCES IN TACTICS, PACE, ON N.KOREA: TILLERSON
- TILLERSON SAYS TRUMP & PUTIN HAD A GOOD EXCHANGE ON #NORTHKOREA; RUSSIANS SEE IT DIFFERENTLY THAN THE U.S. DOES: RTRS
- TILLERSON SAYS IT IS NOT CLEAR U.S. OR RUSSIA WILL EVER COME TO A RESOLUTION ON THE QUESTION ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE: RTRS
About the bromance between the two:
- TRUMP, PUTIN CONNECTED QUICKLY, `POSITIVE CHEMISTRY’: TILLERSON
- TILLERSON SAYS NEITHER LEADER WANTED TO STOP MEETING, U.S. FIRST LADY CAME IN AT ONE POINT TO TRY TO GET THEM TO CONCLUDE: RTRS
And the punchline:
- TRUMP RAISED ELECTION MEDDLING, PUTIN DENIED ROLE: TILLERSON
- TRUMP ACCEPTED PUTIN’S ASSURANCE OF NO ELECTION HACKING: LAVROV
And here is the conversation from the Russian side, in this case Sergey Lavrov, as reported by Interfax:
- PUTIN, TRUMP HAD VERY CONCRETE CONVERSATION – LAVROV
- LAVROV SAYS HE AND TILLERSON ASKED TO CONTINUE DIALOGUE ON ALL INT’L ISSUES, INCLUDING N. KOREA
- LAVROV: THERE IS UNDERSTANDING ON THREE DE-ESCALATION ZONES IN SYRIA, DIALOGUE CONTINUING ON NORTHERN ZONE
- LAVROV: U.S. AIMS AT IMPLEMENTATION OF MINSK AGREEMENTS – LAVROV
- LAVROV: CONTACTS WITH TRUMP, TILLERSON SHOWED NO SIGN OF U.S. DEPARTING FROM MINSK ACCORDS
- LAVROV: PUTIN, TRUMP AGREE ON CREATION OF BILATERAL WORKING GROUP FOR DEVELOPMENT OF INTERACTION ON BROAD RANGE OF ISSUES, INCLUDING CYBER SECURITY
- LAVROV: WE WILL CONTINUE SEEKING SOLUTION TO PROBLEM OF RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY IN U.S
- RUSSIA, U.S. AGREE TO SPEED UP THEIR AMBASSADOR APPOINTMENT PROCEDURES – LAVROV
- LAVROV: STATE SOVEREIGNTY TO BE ENSURED IN CREATION OF DE-ESCALATION ZONE IN SOUTHERN SYRIA
- LAVROV: WE HOPE U.S. ENVOY FOR UKRAINE WILL ARRIVE IN MOSCOW FOR CONSULTATIONS SOON
- LAVROV: AGREEMENT REACHED TO CREATE RUSSIAN-U.S. CHANNEL FOR UKRAINIAN SETTLEMENT
- LAVROV: SECURITY IN DE-ESCALATION ZONE IN SOUTHERN SYRIA WILL BE ENSURED USING RUSSIAN POLICE, U.S. AND JORDANIAN FORCES
- LAVROV: RUSSIAN, U.S. EXPERTS IN JORDAN ON FRIDAY FINISHED WORK OF AGREEING ON DE-ESCALATION AREAS IN SOUTHWEST SYRIA
- LAVROV: PUTIN AND TRUMP ARE DRIVEN BY NATIONAL INTERESTS, AIM AT MUTUAL AGREEMENTS
- TRUCE IN SOUTHERN SYRIA TO BE EFFECTIVE FROM MIDNIGHT JULY 9 – LAVROV
- LAVROV: PUTIN, TRUMP DEMONSTRATED THAT THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF CREATING PROBLEMS OUT OF NOTHING FOR TWO COUNTRIES
And the only line that matters on this side:
- TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGES ANTI-RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN IN U.S. ALREADY LOOKING ODD, THAT HE ACCEPTS PUTIN’S STATEMENTS ON THIS MATTER – LAVROV
In summary: Putin denied hacking the US election, and “Trump accepted Putin’s assurance” at least according to the Russian side. We now await the howls of outrage from the US media.
All this is meaningless as Trump can’t control Pentagon and CIA actions in Syria and Ukraine, and he also can’t control the media campaign against Russia and himself…
Exactly, this meeting is just for show.
On the plus side, the approval ratings of the US media have sunk below that of Trump itself. They’ve shown themselves to be so incredibly biased they’ve lost their credibility.
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LOL. You think Trump wants to “control” the Pentagon and the CIA?
Can you interpret a text? It’s control their actions in Syria and Ukraine, not the organizations themselves.
Yey, he was supposed to be their commander and chief… but these organizations clearly went rogue, they are like supra-national pirates and terrorists.
Sad but true…
True, the fact that in this meeting, Trump and Tillerson essentially had to address the ‘Russian hacking narrative’, as entirely created by hysterical DNC and Neo-Cons without any evidence, tends to illustrate how compromised Trump is.
US is hell bent on dissolution of Syria in dozens of small fiefdoms warring with each other on ethnic and religious basis. It’s a “medicine” they want to treat all of the MENA countries with, eventually. They had 100% success rate in Libya and Yemen, 50% in Iraq and the final result in Syria is still inconclusive. Firsts thing that will happen if the partition of Syria was to be implemented, Israel will start it’s fourth and final invasion of South Lebanon in order to annex it – Golan style. Then they’ll offer “protection” to Daraa and Suweyda – in order to protect the Golan, they occupied in the first place – for security of the Galilee. That logic just keeps on giving. Destruction of Syria wouldn’t be the end of the war it would be the beginning of the real thing – a 100 year Sunni-Shiia-Arab-Turk-Kurd-Persian shitshow – the reason why the Syrian war was instigated by US/Israel in the first place…
Iraq might backfire yet 100% if the army goes to ‘the other side’.
The US army?the US military seems to have flown in the face of the Obama administration, in Syria, on at least two occasions.
I agree with the idea that, since the beggining of the Arab Spring, the main objective of US and Israel is the balkanization of the Middle East and North Africa and the fomention of perpetual wars between Sunni-Shiia-Arab-Turk-Kurd-Persian population.
Hezbollah beat Israel with only 5,000 troops and tiny missiles in July 2006. Hezbollah is now around 50,000 men strong, and if there is any invasion of Southern Lebanon foreign battle-hardened fighters from other countries will be the ones fighting against Israelis. Hezbollah now has way more advanced weaponry in it’s arsenal and now has very experienced soldiers. In the next Lebanon war, it will be the Israelites fighting for their lives.
Current Israeli politicians are crazy. The ones that will come will be crazier still. Destruction of Syria was initiated in order to cut Hezbollah supply line to Iran. The war would be bloody for both sides, but this time US would take active part. Maybe even putting boots on the ground. And that’s Zionist wet dream – having other people die for them.
There plan of destroying Syria and controlling the border was a failure. Haha
I’ve seen the overhead photos of Syria, Syria is destroyed. Jewish mission accomplished. 50% of Syrians left Syria. 80% of Syrian building destroyed. 75% of Syrian production wiped out. Syria could not be weaker. And to top it all off, the Russian missiles sold to them do not work against Jewish American built jets.
I think you are exaggerating, there was 20,000,000 syrians before the war, now there is 18 million. I do not think 80% of All buildings are destroyed but it is something like 10-30%. Syria will get about 2/3 of it’s land offer the war and SDF will mostly have farms and desert.
Just when Syrian/allies making progress….sudden come out ceasefire and de escalation zones. Qunetria, Daraa and Suweida. …This favors Israel never give back stolen Golan Via UNSCRS, ….they get more of Syria Golan, ….and probably get Hezbollah /IRGC In these sectors listed as illegal combatants. Putin/Lavrov will not press for either above Syrian allies to be Legitimate. This is where Putin serves his Jewish Oligarchs and Rothschild Central bank. Readership are realizing Russia is 2 headed Janus of politics regarding Syria. Syria is not a Russian priority just as Donbass is not. If either really mattered to Russia. ….the Power would be seen, It would be the US,NATO,Israel and Saudi kicking chairs accross the room.
Syrian war goes real easy for US,Israel, Saudi. …even Turks. Too many Happy criminals…..too many!
The Israelis and the US failed miserably since Syrian/Iraqi at Al Tanf border hasn’t been too active since the days prior to Saddam Hussein .Iran has gotten supplies for a long time through other methods anybody with half a brain would have realized their folly straight off . This just what you suspect it to be an attempt to create a eastern base as a starting point to for invasion to partition Syria , just as Taqba is another .
And V 22 Ospreys to fly Opium around : )
The Nasr Brigade at the moment had only 3000 and not 5000 , Hezbollah and Lebanon didn’t feel the need to send more troops to help since Israel was bogged down in their attempt . Bush had refused any help from the US back then and told them to call in their reserves or retreat . Israel thought their Navy was going to shell Lebanon and then it got hit by a ship missile damaging it . Hezbollah has always improved since that day and so has the Lebanese army thanks to Israel leaving all those tank parts there , think that was kind of them.
Tillerson believes in ‘anthropogenic’ CO2-based Global warming, of course he will believe the Russians hacked the elections.
.. he makes his money in oil so to try and convince people “not to fart as much” to stop Global warming is expected… Finally dispossessing Arabs of their cash and mineral wealth but also of their strategic position and importance – controlling some of the world’s most important sea lanes – makes Tillerson’s portfolio even richer…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d51f833f846e084beb40f22b7caa9e5c862b4bfa2d6b83689982f1c9fd328cbb.gif
:-)
Russia needs those US greenbacks. And America has lots of ’em.
unfortunately :(
They don’t trade in that many US dollars and don’t have an inflated economy , like the US does. The best trade item is goods and gold not some piece of paper with intrinsic value .
You just made 1/4 of my day.
Putin’s translator sounded brilliant.
I don’t know what they discussed but Russia should ignore the US, and not trust what it says, and understand that whatever the US proposes benefits their side and has nothing to do with peace. Russia should treat every proposal of the USA’s as a trap and probably should do the opposite of this.
ABC and CNN (haven’t watched other network coverage) have both bent over backwards in the U.S. to ‘hear’ any comments, suggestions or simply flat-out lies about Trump and Putin going at it over Russian hacking of U.S. elections. The ABC broadcast yesterday must have spent five minutes on the issue, even though it probably amounted to one or two comments/questions during the meeting. The U.S. networks honestly seem to think Trump believes them despite his constant mocking of their fake news. Kind of funny about the election hacking, because it was mostly a lie created by the MSM to begin with. They seem obsessed with repeating their lie ad nauseum until it magically becomes true, I guess. I use the qualifier ‘mostly’ only to acknowledge the usual level of state-sponsored spying back and forth for intelligence purposes (not to ‘influence’ the vote). Although, considering we could have had HIllary Clinton as president today, I want to thank the Russian people for whatever efforts they may have used to prevent that. I’m sure the rest of the world thanks you as well.
ABC is the American Broadcasting Network in the U.S. The Australian ABC network’s coverage probably didn’t differ much, though. They seem as butt-hurt as the U.S. networks that Clinton lost the election. I would be interested to hear what the MSM coverage of the Trump-Putin meeting was like in AU other parts of the world. Did they also give the wishful-thinking impression that an hour-and-a-half was spent entirely on ‘Russian election hacking’?
The US mainstream media is Zionist-owned. Looking for honesty from them is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Trump is not to be trusted either. He works for Bibi and Sheldon Adelson – Big Zionists.
I agree 100 % with what you said
I wouldn’t waste my time looking for virtue or honesty in the U.S. MSM – that’s not the point. It’s all just intel to me; 100% of it, lies and all.
What is important is to be aware of what narrative they’re trying to push at any given moment and why, as well as when they change and/or give up on one. Zionist owned? So what – tomorrow it will be someone else with a different agenda. The ‘news’ is a business. Someone will always try to sell you something. It will never be an information charity run by altruistic journalists. It never was.
I’m of the opinion that the primary tactical reason the major US MSM cannot stop the “Russian Threat’ narrative is that their audience is incapable at self-sustaining a long term propaganda meme. US media audiences have been conditioned to shift from media trauma to media trauma without a connective logical thread. In a sense they have been trained to forget (in Orwellian terms) that which no longer fits the most up-to-date narrative. Cognitive dissonance cannot live for long in the mind of the audience without constant dis-informational upgrades from the MSM. The downside for the MSM is the same as for the junkie – the greater the intake/ exposure, the greater the tolerance, which requires ever greater dosages to achieve the desired effects. Audience burn-out is around the corner. If they were to let up the narrative for a week, they would never be able to recover the momentum.
Dear Russia:
Nuke us. For the love of God… nuke us now… https://twitter.com/President1Trump/status/883755228574752768
Best line in the entire video: “I mean… I should be an investigative journalist because…[end of incomprehensible thought]”
CNN & ABC – there’s your next associate producer / investigative journalist. Offer her a dollar more an hour than she’s getting at Starbucks right now and she’s all yours.
The Commonwealth Media is generally state sponsored like ABC,(Australian), BBC,(British),CBC,(Canadian) etc. They always toe the lines of the Governments agenda very little deviation like PBS .
I sometimes think that may be Russian leaders are eternally destined to go on repeating the same historical mistakes without end. Does President Putin learn nothing from Stalin? Will Putin only see the threat once western tanks have crossed the border as happened to Stalin?
It is not great leadership only to start resisting when the enemy is at the gates of Moscow.
Hey Paul. Sometimes I think it is better to let them all the way in the fun park, before the lights are turned on. Have a great weekend. :)
Okay, the meeting is over, let’s see what flies next. I am all stocked up on snacks, for a very long observation of the goings on. A good day to all.
NO LONG-TERM ROLE FOR ASSAD, HIS FAMILY, IN SYRIA: TILLERSON. Of cause that’s not an interference into democratic process in Syria. Isn’t it? Is that again Assad must go? RU must commit to noninterference into democratic processes in US. Wow! It seems like Trump has tried to solicit some kind of confession from Putin about RU hacking into US election to get some media wind of himself. What about US interference in Serbia, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Syria? Has Putin mentioned anything about it? Are Putin and Lavrov so stupid to swallow all this garbage without bringing this bunch of liars to the task?
Again famous RU prostitutes in action. Sorry ladies that’s the name you’ve earned for yourself by your hard work.
I think this is a beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Time waisting meeting instead of pointing out Saudi Arabia as the terrorist sponsors Trump were busy beating around the bush.Putin was just buying face to be in good books.