Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia next week, according to the State Department.

Pompeo will meet with Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday to discuss "the full range of bilateral and multilateral challenges," the department said in a press release. Pompeo is scheduled to arrive in Moscow on Monday with a diplomatic team.

The two countries are facing tension on a number of fronts around the world, including in Venezuela, Iran and North Korea.

News of the trip comes one week after a lengthy phone call between President Donald Trump and Putin, the first such high-level conversation since special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election was released to the public.

Trump said after the call that the two discussed the "Russian Hoax" in addition to a variety of other issues. But Trump said they did not talk about Russian interference in future U.S. elections.

The meeting also follows the abrupt cancellation on Tuesday of a meeting between Pompeo and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. The State Department cited "pressing issues" at the time.

Pompeo met with Lavrov earlier this month. The two held talks in Finland May 6, which Russian media said made the phone call between Trump and Putin possible. </s> Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are scheduled to hold their first official summit in Helsinki on July 16, according to the White House.

U.S. national security adviser, John Bolton, met with Putin in Moscow and the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections is expected to be on the agenda.

According to The Guardian, U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control and security concerns will also be among the topics the two leaders will discuss.

While all the U.S. intelligent agencies conclude that Russia meddled in the elections, Trump made his position clear ahead of the meeting.

On Twitter, the president raised questions against his intelligent agencies with accusations of corruption and calls for Hillary Clinton’s ties to Russia to be investigated.

“Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election! Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!”

The upcoming summit will be the third meeting between the two leaders but the first formal summit. The last time they met, President Trump said he took Putin’s word that Russia didn’t meddle in the U.S. elections.

Trump and Putin’s first meeting in Hamburg G7 last year ended in controversy. At the dinner, the two leaders had an undisclosed, hour-long meeting with only a Russian translator present.

Trump is expected to discuss Ukraine and Syria conflicts as well as economic sanctions at the Helsinki summit. Many commentators expect the summit to be a symbolic affair similar to the Singapore meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un.

Putin pointed out the U.S.-Russia relations are not their best after meeting with John Bolton.

While Trump seemingly cast doubts on Russia meddling in the election process, officials in his administration have pushed back.

Bolton, who has accused Russia of being untrustworthy in the past, said in Moscow that the optics of a meeting between the two leaders do not connect the Trump campaign to the Russian meddling scandal.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN during an interview that Trump takes election meddling seriously.

Trump’s public comment on the Russian interference seems to contradict Pompeo’s assertion. </s> MOSCOW (AP) — The Latest on the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin (all times local):

President Donald Trump is repeating his denials of any Russian election interference as details are released on his upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The White House and the Kremlin announced Thursday that the two leaders would meet in Helsinki on July 16.

Ahead of the announcement, Trump tweeted, "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!"

Trump has continually parroted the Kremlin's denial of interference in the 2016 elections. That move has put him out of step with the findings of the U.S. intelligence community and nearly all Democrats and Republicans in Congress who say there is clear evidence of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

The Kremlin and the White House say the summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will take place in Helsinki on July 16.

The synchronized announcement comes a day after Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton held talks with Russian officials in Moscow to lay the groundwork for the summit.

Trump said Wednesday that "getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing." He said they would discuss Syria, Ukraine and "many other subjects."

The Russian leader had two brief meetings with Trump on the sidelines of international summits last year, but plans for a full-fledged summit have been thrown back amid the U.S. investigations into alleged collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Moscow says the top Russian and U.S. diplomats are likely to meet to set the stage for a summit between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo within two weeks. Ryabkov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies Thursday that Moscow already has made a proposal regarding the specifics of the meeting and is waiting for Washington's answer.

Trump told reporters that he'll probably meet with Putin during a July trip to Europe. He mentioned Helsinki, Finland, and Vienna, Austria, as possible venues, adding that he would be receiving an update from his adviser, John Bolton, who visited Moscow Wednesday to lay the groundwork for the summit.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> In a fierce break from Kremlin-friendly rhetoric, the White House on Thursday condemned a cyber-attack launched by the Russian military on Ukraine.

Last year’s June malware attack, known as “NotPetya,” “was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine and demonstrates ever more clearly Russia’s involvement in the ongoing conflict,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Threatening “international consequences,” the Trump administration designated Russia’s initiative as “the most destructive and costly cyber-attack in history.”

The statement is a sharp departure from a president who has consistently denied Russia involvement in the 2016 election, even as intelligence agencies presented findings to the contrary. In recent weeks, however, President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have sniped at one another over international policy.

After Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced a grand strategy toward Syria involving the ousting of Putin-aligned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow turned a cold shoulder to Washington. Despite the White House’s decision to hold off on sanctions against the Kremlin, Putin called the administration’s released list of Russian businessmen and oligarchs “a hostile step” in late January.

After meeting with Russian intelligence officials the week before, CIA Director Mike Pompeo warned in a BBC interview that the United States would retaliate “in a way that is sufficiently robust” should Russia interfere in this year’s upcoming midterm elections. U.S. intelligence officials echoed these sentiments during a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

NotPetya has disabled operations in Ukraine’s central bank, the main airport in Kiev and Chernobyl’s nuclear facilities. Cyber-security experts warn that it was a test for future digital warfare to be employed against other countries. </s> WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet President Vladimir Putin next week in Russia in the highest-level formal talks between the powers in 10 months, the State Department said on Friday (May 10).

The top US diplomat will meet Putin next Tuesday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to "discuss the full range of bilateral and multilateral challenges," the State Department said.

The United States and Russia are at loggerheads over a number of global issues including Venezuela, where Pompeo has led US calls to demand that Moscow stop backing President Nicolas Maduro, a leftist whom Washington is trying to oust.

The trip marks the most significant US interaction with Putin since July, when President Donald Trump met the Russian leader in Finland in an encounter that was widely criticised inside the United States.

Trump at a joint news conference appeared to take at face value Putin's insistence that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election - despite findings of US intelligence as well as Putin's open statement in Helsinki that he favoured Trump over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Pompeo's trip comes after the long-awaited release of a probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who found widespread efforts by Russia to meddle in the US election but did not find that the Trump campaign colluded - a conclusion that has brought relief to the embattled White House.

Trump again raised eyebrows a week ago when he said that Putin told him in a lengthy phone call that he was "not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela" and wanted to "see something positive happen" in the crisis-torn country.

Russia earlier announced Pompeo's visit but it had been unclear whether he would meet Putin. He will also hold talks in Sochi with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - their second meeting in as many weeks after they met on the sidelines of an Arctic conference in Helsinki.

Pompeo will also visit Moscow, where he will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier dedicated to Soviet troops killed in World War II - an era when Moscow and Washington were allied. </s> MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a summit in Helsinki on July 16, the Kremlin and the White House announced Thursday.

A terse synchronized statement said the two presidents will discuss bilateral issues and international relations. The announcement comes a day after President Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton held talks with Russian officials in Moscow to lay the groundwork for the summit.

“I’ve said it from day one, getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing,” President Trump said Wednesday. “It’s good for the world. It’s good for us. It’s good for everybody.”

He said they would discuss Syria, Ukraine and “many other subjects.”

Putin had two brief meetings with President Trump on the sidelines of international summits last year, but plans for a full-fledged summit have been thrown back amid the U.S. investigations into alleged collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Ahead of the announcement, President Trump repeated Russian denials of election interference, tweeting “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!”

President Trump has continually parroted the Kremlin’s denial of election interference, a move that has put him out of step with the findings of the U.S. intelligence community and nearly all Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who say there’s clear evidence of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo within the next two weeks as part of efforts to set the stage for the summit.

Ryabkov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies Thursday that Moscow already has made a proposal regarding the specifics of the meeting and is waiting for Washington’s answer. </s> The United States has warned India against its plan of purchasing S-400 air defence systems from Russia when President Vladimir Putin visits New Delhi for a bilateral summit on Thursday, reported Reuters. The commercial negotiations for the deal, estimated to be around Rs 37,000 crore, concluded in May.

Under new US laws, countries that sign deals with Russian defence or intelligence sectors can face secondary sanctions. President Donald Trump signed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act into law in August 2017, and it came into effect in 2018. It aimed to punish Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections and the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, among other things.

“We urge all of our allies and partners to forgo transactions with Russia that would trigger sanctions under the CAATSA,” a US State Department official said. “The administration has indicated that a focus area for the implementation of CAATSA Section 231 is new or qualitative upgrades in capability – including the S-400 air and missile defence system.”

However, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had earlier said that discussions were on whether to grant India waivers from US sanctions on Russia and Iran. He had said that Washington did not aim to “penalise great strategic partners like India”.

Last month, the US imposed sanctions on China after its military bought fighter jets and missile systems from Russia. Moscow said that these sanctions undermined global stability. “It would be good for them to remember there is such a concept as global stability which they are thoughtlessly undermining by whipping up tensions in Russian-American ties,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had said. “Playing with fire is silly, it can become dangerous.” </s> President Donald Trump shakes with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Friday, June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

OSAKA, Japan (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s trip to Asia (all times local):

President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping are meeting Saturday in Osaka, Japan, as the trade war between two economic titans faces a critical junction.

Both the U.S. and China are signaling a desire to de-escalate the year-long conflict, yet seem unwilling to compromise.

The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the international Group of 20 summit.

Trump is also meeting Saturday with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammad Bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Democrats are criticizing an off-handed comment President Donald Trump made about election meddling during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a summit in Japan.

After a reporter asked Trump if he was going to warn Russia not to meddle in the U.S. election, Trump turned to Putin and jokingly said: “Don’t meddle in the election.”

The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, says the joke is on America and Putin is the only one laughing. Schumer says Trump is giving Russia a green light to interfere again in 2020.

The Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin has invited President Donald Trump to visit Russia next year.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the Russian leader wants Trump to attend festivities marking the 75th anniversary of the World War II victory.

Peskov says Trump reacted “positively” to the invitation at the two leaders’ meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 nations’ summit in Osaka. Peskov says a formal invitation would be sent shortly.

The Kremlin spokesman says that during their meeting, Trump and Putin discussed ways to improve economic times, arms control, China, Syria and Turkey.

President Donald Trump is joking with Russian President Vladimir Putin about interfering in U.S. elections.

After a reporter at an international summit in Japan asked Trump if he was going to warn Russia not to meddle in the U.S. election, Trump turned to Putin and jokingly said: “Don’t meddle in the election.”

The off-handed comment came during the two leaders’ first meeting since special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia extensively interfered with the 2016 campaign.

President Donald Trump has promised Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that he will visit the South American country.

Trump said Friday that Brazil has many of the world’s assets and he looks forward to the trip. He didn’t say when it would be.

Bolsonaro, dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” after he emulated Trump to win election last year, told Trump he supports his re-election. The leaders met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Trump answered several questions about his meeting Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said he thinks it will be productive. The U.S. and China are locked in a trade war.

Trump says he hasn’t promised to hold off on new tariffs on Chinese goods.

White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump will speak about women’s economic empowerment at a special event during the Group of 20 summit in Japan.

The White House says President Donald Trump’s daughter plans to speak Saturday at an event being held a summit session on women’s participation in the workforce. She was invited by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, host of the summit in Osaka, and will appear with Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, with whom she has worked closely on the issue.

President Trump is also expected to attend.

Ivanka Trump will discuss how the Trump administrations recently launched initiative on Women’s Global Development and Prosperity will marshal government and private support to empower women economically around the world.

President Donald Trump says he’ll discuss trade and disarmament issues with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two are meeting Friday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan. It’s their first meeting since a federal investigation in the United States documented extensive evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It’s also their first time face-to-face since a Helsinki summit last July in which Trump refused to side with U.S. intelligence agencies over his Russian counterpart.

Putin has denied meddling in the election.

Trump jokingly said to Putin: “Don’t meddle in the election,” after a reporter asked if he will deliver that warning to Putin about the 2020 U.S. election.

President Donald Trump says German Chancellor Angela Merkel is a “fantastic person” and he’s “glad to have her as a friend.”

Trump commented Friday as he and Merkel met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan. Merkel said last year that she won’t seek a fifth term as chancellor and Trump has complained outside of her presence that Germany is taking advantage of the U.S. on support for NATO.

The president says he and Merkel “have many things to talk about” but he didn’t indicate whether he’d raise the NATO issue.

Merkel said she wants to discuss Iran, counterterrorism and West Africa.

President Donald Trump says he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have become “great friends” and the two countries “have never been closer.”

The two heads of state met Friday in Osaka, Japan, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit.

The president has complained about trade with India and says it will be among the issues they discuss. Modi said he wants to discuss Iran, 5G communications networks, bilateral relations and defense relations. The prime minister also thanked Trump for expressing his “love toward India” in a letter recently delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Trump and Modi met separately following a three-way meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

President Donald Trump is meeting jointly with the leaders of India and Japan.

The three leaders did a group fist bump as they posed for a photo Friday’s meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Trump says it’s a “great honor” to be at the meeting and congratulated Modi on his recent re-election.

Despite his recent complaints about India and Japan, Trump forecast a “positive” discussion with his counterparts.

Abe says India, the U.S., and Japan are the “foundation of the peace and prosperity in the region.”

President Donald Trump is opening his participation in the Group of 20 summit by meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the summit host.

Trump recalled Friday that he’d been in Japan last month, joking that “we just left Japan and now I’m back.”

He recalled presenting an award to the winner of a sumo wrestling champion during the May visit and claimed “everybody’s talking about it all over the world.”

Trump says he and Abe will discuss trade, military and other issues during their meeting on the sidelines of the summit, which is being held in Osaka, Japan.

President Donald Trump is under pressure to take a firm stand against election interference Friday when he holds his first meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin since the special counsel found extensive evidence of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

U.S. officials are on high alert for more interference next year.

Trump said in advance he expected a “very good conversation” with Putin but told reporters that “what I say to him is none of your business.”

His aides have grown worried that Trump could use the meeting to once again attack Robert Mueller’s probe on the world stage, particularly since the special counsel now has a date to testify before Congress next month. </s> May 10 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov next week during a trip to Sochi, Russia, the State Department announced Friday.

Pompeo will arrive Monday and meet with U.S. Embassy officials in Moscow along with American business leaders there. He is also expected to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

On Tuesday, Pompeo is scheduled to meet with Putin and Lavrov to "discuss the full range of bilateral and multilateral challenges."

Russia's state-run Tass news agency reported that Lavrov would meet with Pompeo and that the Kremlin did not rule out a meeting with Putin.

Russia said the discussions will include issues connected with the political standoff in Venezuela, the Syrian civil war and Ukraine.

Moscow said the two sides had agreed to meet during a sidelines meeting Monday at the Arctic Council session in Finland.

Both countries have criticized each other over Venezuela, where the United States supports National Assembly President Juan Gaido, while Russia backs embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Last week, Lavrov complained that U.S. involvement in Venezuela's internal affairs by supporting Gaido was a violation of international law. Pompeo said American military intervention was still "possible."

The Trump administration had slowed an earlier planned withdrawal of troops from Syria, where Russia has been aiding the Syrian government. The White House said earlier this year that 400 troops will remain in Syria as peacekeepers, against the wishes of Moscow and Damascus.

In March, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned six Russians and several defense entities in connection with Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels and sailors in the Kerch Strait in November. American and Western allies voiced opposition to the seizure while Russia claimed the vessels sailed illegally into Russian-controlled waters.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets Russian President Vladimir Putin and warns Russia to not interfere in the 2020 United States presidential election.