President Donald Trump commenced a bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday with high expectations for improved relations between the two countries.

“I think we have great opportunities together,” Trump, seated next to Putin, told reporters before a 90-minute closed-door meeting between the leaders. “And frankly we have not been getting along very well in the last number of years. It’s getting close to two years.”

But he added: “I think we will have an extraordinary relationship. I really think the world wants to see us get along.”

The president again congratulated Putin on the country’s “spectacular” hosting of the World Cup. He said the leaders would discuss trade, nuclear issues and China.

Putin appeared uncomfortable as he sat silently next to Trump during the brief photo opportunity, somewhat hunched over in his chair. The two leaders shook hands when Trump finished speaking but didn’t smile at one another.

Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018

The meeting consisted of only Trump, Putin and some interpreters, Finnish officials told assembled White House reporters. It lasted about two hours.

Hours earlier, Trump lambasted his own government for poor U.S. relations with Russia. And, on Sunday, Trump said he didn’t hold high expectations for the meeting, but “nothing bad is going to come out of it and maybe some good will come out.”

He said last week during a NATO summit in Brussels that his meeting with Putin “might be the easiest of them all,” referring to talks he held with European leaders, including U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May.

This article has been updated to include more information about the meeting.</s>President Donald Trump, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Russian President Vladimir Monday, refused to say whether he believed his own intelligence agencies over Putin about interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. In an extraordinary press conference in Helsinki, Finland, just days after the Justice Department indicted 12 Russian intelligence agents on charges of hacking into the Democratic National Committee and Hillary’s Clinton presidential campaign, Trump instead said both the U.S. and Russia were to blame over deteriorating relations.

Here were some of the most stunning moments from a question-and-answer session with reporters that had Democrats and even some Republicans crying foul.

Trump refuses to defend U.S. intelligence agencies

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire asked Trump whether he believed his own intelligence agencies or Putin about whether Russians interfered in the 2016 election and whether he would denounce the meddling and warn Putin against doing it again.

In his answer, Trump declined to back his own Justice Department and instead put forward conspiracy theories about the 2016 election and pivoted again to Hillary Clinton's emails.

Trump on Poor Relations With Russia: ‘I Hold Both Countries Responsible’

“We have two thoughts,” Trump said. “You have groups the are wondering why the FBI never took the [DNC] server. “Why haven’t they taken the server. Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee. I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting that out.”

Trump also refused to back U.S. intelligence agencies and noted that Putin had denied Russian involvement.

“I don’t see any reason why it would be but I really do want to see the server,” Trump said.

Is there Russian "kompromat?"

The AP’s Lemire also asked Putin directly whether the Russian state had compromising information on Trump, which was the subject of a dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent and which Trump supporters have denounced. The dossier alleged that an incident involving Trump and prostitutes was secretly recorded by Russia during the visit.

Putin called the uncorroborated accusation “utter nonsense” but in waving it off did not specifically deny the claim. Instead he insisted he didn’t know that Trump was in Moscow at the time and said that many American businessmen had visited Russia.

“Distinguished colleague, let me tell you this: When Mr. Trump visited Moscow back then, I didn’t even know he was in Moscow. I treat Mr. Trump with utmost respect but back then when he was private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me he was in Moscow.”

Rob Goldstone, a music promoter who arranged the meeting in July 2016 in Trump Tower when material damaging to Clinton was allegedly promised to Donald Trump Jr., tweeted out the following:

“President Putin just stated that he had no idea Donald Trump was in Moscow in 2013. I know for sure that he did and tell the full story in my soon to be released book…”

Putin's candidate

Putin was asked whether he wanted Trump to win the election, as U.S. intelligence agencies have maintained.

“Yes, I did,” Putin said. “Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the Russian relationship back to normal.”

Will Russia extradite indicted Russian agents?

Putin was asked whether he would extradite 12 Russian agents indicted for hacking into Democratic computers during the 2016 presidential election. The U.S does not have an extradition treaty with Russia.

Putin replied that a different U.S.-Russian treaty calls for mutual assistance on criminal cases and suggested Mueller send an official request asking that Russia question the agents on behalf of the United States.

“I don’t know the full extent of the situation but President Trump mentioned this issue and I will look into it. So far I can say the following off the top of my head. We have an existing agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, an existing treaty that dates back to 1999, the mutual assistance on criminal cases. This treaty is in full effect, it works quite efficiently.”

He said that U.S. agents could come to Russia to witness the questioning, if Americans would also assist Russia in its investigation into Putin critic Bill Browder, a British financier who has spearheaded sanctions against Russians for human rights abuses.

Soccer diplomacy 

Russia is coming off hosting a successful World Cup competition, which ended on Sunday with France defeating Croatia 4-2 to win the tournament. Putin playfully tossed a soccer ball to Trump, telling him, “Speaking of the football actually. Mr. President, I’ll give this ball. and now the ball is in your court. All the more that the United States will host the World Cup in 2026.”

The 2026 World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Trump said the soccer ball would go to his son, Baron, and threw the ball to his wife, Melania, who was sitting in the audience.

Afterward, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham tweeted: “Finally, if it were me, I’d check the soccer ball for listening devices and never allow it in the White House.”

Reporter ejected from press conference

Moments before the joint press conference began a reporter representing The Nation magazine was forcibly removed from the room by security agents. He appeared to be carrying a handwritten sign that said “Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation’s editor, told CNN: “Sam Husseini, communications director of Institute for Public Accuracy, received press accreditation from @thenation to cover the summit. As Trump administration consistently denigrates media, we’re deeply troubled by reports that he was forcibly removed from press conference.”</s>HELSINKI - President Donald Trump opened a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday by predicting that their countries will end up having "an extraordinary relationship" but without mentioning Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in his opening remarks.

"Our two countries, frankly, we have not been getting along well," Trump said as he and Putin sat down at the Presidential Palace in Finland's capital. "I really think the world wants to see us get along."

Putin, for his part, said he and Trump have maintained regular contact, including talking by phone and meeting at international events. Speaking through a translator, the Russian leader said "the time has come to have a thorough discussion on various international problems and sensitive issues."

The summit got under way hours after Trump blamed the United States, and not Russian election meddling or its annexation of Crimea, for a low-point in U.S.-Russia relations. The drama was playing out against a backdrop of fraying Western alliances, a new peak in the Russia investigation and fears that Moscow's aggression may go unchallenged.

Monday's meeting, which was being closely watched by rattled world capitals, was condemned in advance by members of Congress from both parties after the U.S. indictment last week of 12 Russian military intelligence officers accused of hacking Democrats in the 2016 election to help Trump's presidential campaign. Undeterred, the American president was set to go face-to-face with Putin, the authoritarian leader for whom he has expressed admiration.

The summit started late because Putin arrived in Helsinki about a half hour behind schedule in another display of the Russian's leader famous lack of punctuality. Trump seemed to return the favor by waiting until Putin had arrived at the palace before leaving his hotel. Putin has been late for past meetings with the pope and British Queen, among many others.

Trump and his aides have repeatedly tried to lower expectations about what the summit will achieve. He told CBS News that he didn't "expect anything" from Putin, while his national security adviser said the U.S. wasn't looking for any "concrete deliverables." Trump told reporters during a breakfast Monday with Finland's president that he thought the summit would go "fine."

Trump said he and Putin would discuss a range of issues, from trade to the military, along with missiles and China. They shared a brief handshake before reporters were ushered out so they could begin their one-on-one talks in the palace's opulent Gothic Hall.

They'll continue their discussions with an expanded group of aides and over lunch in the Hall of Mirrors, once the emperor's throne room. The leaders will conclude by taking questions at a joint news conference.

Observers have raised concerns about the fact that the leaders will be alone during their first meeting, but for a pair of interpreters, meaning there will be no corroborating witnesses to accurately represent what was said during the conversation.

The meeting comes as questions swirl about whether Trump will sharply and publicly rebuke his Russian counterpart for the election meddling that prompted a special counsel probe that Trump has repeatedly labeled a "witch hunt."

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Los Angeles: Veteran action star and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has attacked President Donald Trump saying he acted like a "fan boy" of Russian President Vladimir Putin in their "embarrassing" press conference.

The "Terminator" star who is 70 years old, slammed Trump in an Instagram video after the president held a press conference with Putin on Monday in Helsinki, Finland.

"President Trump, I just saw your press conference with President Putin and it was embarrassing. I mean, you stood there like a little wet noodle, like a little fanboy," Schwarzenegger said in the video.

The actor added that Trump looked like he was going to ask Putin for an "autograph" or a "selfie". He said that Trump "sold out" his community, the justice system, and "worst of all, our country" during the press conference.

Schwarzenegger was not the only one to criticise the president's performance in Helsinki.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senator Lindsay Graham, Senator John McCain, and more conservative politicians, as well as several Fox News contributors, all reprimanded the president for taking Putin at his word regarding the election interference.</s>President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met and shook hands Monday to kick off a long-anticipated summit on neutral ground in Finland in a final -- and crucial -- stop on the president's chaotic weeklong diplomatic tour through Europe.The two leaders walked into a room in the Presidential Palace in Helsinki quietly. Against the backdrop of six American and Russian flags, the silence was broken when Putin gave brief remarks -- and President Trump followed by congratulating his counterpart on hosting the World Cup."I'd like to congratulate you on a really great World Cup, one of the best ever," Trump said. "And for also your team doing so well."It was beautifully done," he added, saying he watched the finals.Trump said they'll be talking about trade, military and China.He said among the major topics will be repairing the deteriorating relationship between the two countries."We've been not getting along for the past years," Trump said. "We'll have an extraordinary relationship."And I really think the world wants to see us and get along," the U.S. president added. "We are the two great nuclear powers. It's not a good thing, its a bad thing. So we'll be talking about that among other things."Trump did not make any mention of the election meddling, Syria, or the annexation of Crimea in his brief remarks.Putin, who is known to keep world leaders waiting, arrived almost 30 minutes late in Helsinki for the summit with Trump. In his remarks, he said the time had come for bilateral relations and "various hotspots in the world.""There are enough of them that we have paid attention to them," he said."I am glad to meet with you on the hospitable soil of Finland," Putin added.After both leaders spoke, they briefly shook hands.Now, they'll have a 90-minute, bilateral meeting with advisors, followed by a press conference.The meeting happened after a week of worldwide anxious anticipation spanning from the U.S. to Europe to Russia.Just hours before they, Trump tweeted, "Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!"Trump has said he hopes to improve relations between the United States and Russia, but has placed blame for the deteriorated relationship on his predecessor, President Barack Obama, rather than Russian aggression and meddling.When asked about his message to Putin during a breakfast at the Finnish president's residence, Mntyniemi, with the president of Finland, Sauli Niinist, and the first lady of Finland, Jenni Haukio, Trump simply replied, "we'll do just fine, thank you."The stakes are high for the summit. Just days before Trump arrived in Helsinki, special counsel Robert Mueller issued indictments on 12 Russian spies for their interference in the 2016 election.News of action by Mueller added additional pressure on the president to address election meddling and hold Putin accountable for Russian aggression. Monday's meeting loomed large over each leg of the president's tour.At NATO, allied leaders condemned Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, and in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May said at a press conference with Trump she welcomes "the strong response from the U.S. on the poisonings in Salisbury."Trump said election interference, along with Syria, Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, and meddling will be among the topics on the table Monday."I know you'll ask will we be talking about meddling. And I will absolutely bring that up. I don't think you'll have any, 'Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me.' There won't be a Perry Mason here, I don't think. But you never know what happens, right? But I will absolutely firmly ask the question," Trump said at Chequers, May's residence, on Friday.Still, Kremlin press secretary Dmitri Peskov told reporters ahead of the summit that should Trump bring up interference in the U.S. election, he will "reiterate that Russia did not and could not bear any relation to the matter on which such speculations are centered."Over the weekend, Trump and his White House advisers tried to downplay the impact of the summit. For the White House, the meeting isn't so much about resolving problems but building a diplomatic bridge between two countries that have not seen worse relations since the Cold War.Trump himself said he did not have "high expectations" for their talks, and White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, who took the lead on orchestrating the summit by traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin, said the United States should not expect any deliverables or written agreements, like the joint agreement made by Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore in June."We have asked and the Russians have agreed that it will be basically unstructured. We're not looking for concrete deliverables here," Bolton said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I think it's very important that the president has a direct one-on-one conversation with President Putin. That's how this is going to start."U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman even said it's not a "summit" but a "meeting" on NBC's "Meet the Press.""Listen, and it isn't a summit. I've heard it called a summit. This is a meeting. In fact, it's the first meeting between the two presidents. They've had some pull-asides, one at the G20 in Hamburg and the other at the APEC Ministerial in Da Nang, Vietnam," Huntsman said. "But this is really the first time for both presidents to actually sit across the table and have a conversation. And I hope it's a detailed conversation about where we might be able to find some overlapping and shared interests. This has not happened before."Trump went on to call it a summit later in a tweet.While allied NATO leaders like May were encouraging of Trump's meeting with Putin, lawmakers at home expressed skepticism ahead of the talks in Finland and even told Trump to cancel their meeting if Trump could not guarantee a hard-line response to election meddling."President Trump must be willing to confront Putin from a position of strength and demonstrate that there will be a serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the United States and democracies around the world," Republican Sen. John McCain said in a statement. "If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward."Concern has grown the president will make concessions with Russia, or come out with nothing much to show for the meeting except handshakes, smiles and photos, particularly as aides have said the president hasn't been keen on studying up ahead of the summit, according to ABC News sources."Will I be prepared? I'm totally prepared. I have been preparing for this stuff my whole life," Trump said at a rally in Montana before he left for Europe.Trump spent the weekend before the summit at Trump Turnberry resort on the coast of Scotland meeting with advisers, tweeting and playing golf.Early Monday and hours before the meeting, protests broke out in Helsinki calling for human rights and democracy.It's the first official summit between the presidents of the United States and Russia since 1997 when Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin produced a breakthrough agreement on arms control in Helsinki.Other issues of world importance to be discussed include the U.S.-Russia nuclear arms race, and Russia's alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.Another big topic is expected to be the involvement of the U.S. and Russia in the ongoing civil war in Syria.The United States has had a military presence in Syria since early 2016 to train and advise Kurdish and Arab rebel forces fighting ISIS in northern and eastern parts of the country. Russia, a longtime ally of Syria, has backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite accusations from the U.S. and others that the dictator has repeatedly used chemical weapons on his own people.In April, U.S., Britain, and France launched a series of strikes on three locations identified as critical to Syria's production of chemical weapons, including a scientific research center in Damascus, and a production facility and storage facility in Homs. Russia denounced the airstrikes, warning of "consequences."Trump was evasive during a press conference last week when asked if he and Putin will also discuss sanctions approved by Congress against Russia for its 2014 forcible annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine."Long before I got here, President [Barack] Obama allowed that to happen. That was on his watch, not on my watch," Trump said at a press conference at the end of the NATO summit in Brussel's last week."What will happen with Crimea from this point on, that I can't tell you, but I'm not happy about Crimea," he said of the subject that has fueled the icy relationship between the White House and Moscow.During a meeting last week, Trump heard complaints from May about the attempted murders in March of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, who were both attacked with the Russian-made nerve agent Novichok in southern England."The government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal," May said in an address to the British House of Commons.Last month, two other people were sickened by the same nerve agent in a town near where the Skripals were exposed. A woman, Dawn Sturgess, 44, died Sunday in a hospital; Charlie Rowley, 45, who was with Sturgess when they were exposed to Novichok, was initially in critical condition but has since regained consciousness.Trump, however, is expected to keep U.S. interests at the forefront of the summit agenda, Bolton said."I think the president is going into this meeting determined to advance the national interest of the United States," Bolton said. "That's what he was elected to do.</s>HELSINKI – President Donald Trump will hold a summit Monday Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. He has said he has “low expectations” for the meeting but he is under pressure to confront Putin over alleged interference by Moscow in the 2016 presidential election.

Here is what to watch for:

Putin has repeatedly denied intervention by Moscow in the 2016 election and Trump has often taken the denials at face value. But he faces further pressure to confront Putin after a federal grand jury indicted 12 Russian intelligence agents in a plot to hack into the emails of Democratic campaign officials and leak those emails via Russian-sponsored web sites. That's on top of more than a dozen Russians previously indicted for conspiracy, wire fraud and identity theft as part of an effort to spread propaganda through social media sites.

“Your first request of Vladimir Putin needs to be, tell us which airport we can pick up the 25 Russians that tried to interfere with the fundamentals of our democracy,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. said on "Face the Nation," when discussing what he thought Trump's message should be.

The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, so aides said it's unlikely that the president would seek to get Russia to turn over the intelligence agents indicted last week. “I think it’s pretty silly for the president to demand something that he can’t get legally,’’ National Security Adviser John Bolton said on ABC's This Week.

After Russia moved its military into Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014, the United States and other nations instituted a series of economic sanctions against Russia that remain in place over Putin's protests.

In Brussels last week, Trump signaled that U.S. recognition of Crimea as a Russian territory was not out of the question. He suggested that Russian investments on the peninsula might weigh in Russia's favor.

"You know, people like to say, 'Oh, Crimea.' But the fact is, they built bridges to Crimea. They just opened a big bridge that was started years ago. They built, I think, a submarine port; substantially added billions of dollars," Trump said.

Officials U.S. policy has been that Russia’s armed annexation of the peninsula violated international law and should not be recognized by the rest of the world. European allies are looking for a strong and unequivocal statement that economic sanctions will remain in place until Russia restores the region to Ukrainian control.

For the most part, Putin needs more from the United States than the United States needs from Russia. But one exception may be in Syria, where Russia continues to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Trump has ordered two airstrikes against Syrian targets since he’s been president, each time careful not to hit Russian assets that could escalate the situation.

But he has said he would like Russian cooperation – not just to prevent the Syrian government from using chemical weapons and committing other atrocities against its people, but also in combating remaining Islamic State forces in the region.

For most of the Cold War, U.S.-Russian summits were dominated by the issue of nuclear weapons, with Presidents Nixon, Carter and Reagan reaching a series of incremental agreements to limit the number, size and location of each side’s nuclear arsenal.

One of those treaties, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, will expire in the next two years. But the United States has accused the Russians of violating it and will seek verifiable commitments before renewing the agreement.

More: There are nearly 16,000 nuclear weapons in the world — and Russia, U.S. hold more than 90%

Meanwhile, Trump is pushing NATO allies to vastly increase spending on conventional defense forces in Western and Central Europe, and the alliance has been conducting joint military exercises in Eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea. Russia sees those war games as provocative and would like to see them stop – something else that Trump has not ruled out.

Trump’s diplomatic style is influenced by his decades of deal-making as much as his briefing books, and personal relationships as much as national interests.

He's also a practitioner of what might be described as photo-op diplomacy, using flattery, insults, and body language in his international relations toolbox.

So every gesture – the length and firmness of the handshake, their distance during talks and their every facial expression – will likely be analyzed for clues about the future of U.S.-Russian relations.

More: Analysis: How the Trump-Kim meeting compares to the great summits of history</s>President Vladimir Putin on Monday suggested that Washington question the Russians accused of election interference.

In response, President Donald Trump said that an investigation into Moscow’s alleged meddling in his election had been a “disaster” for the United States.

The two leaders spoke after key talks.

“We ran a brilliant campaign and that’s why I’m president,” Trump said, once again firmly denying allegations that Russian hacking and propaganda assisted him in his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.

Putin had hailed cooperation between Russian and US security services, saying, “Our security services work very successfully.”

The two leaders spoke at a news conference they addressed together.

“We are in favour of continuing cooperation in the sphere of the fight against terror and ensuring cyber security,” Putin enthused.

He then went on to ‘assure’ Trump that gas deliveries via Ukraine will continue.

The US and Russian leaders opened an historic summit in Helsinki, with Donald Trump promising an “extraordinary relationship” and Vladimir Putin saying it was time they thrashed out disputes around the world.</s>HELSINKI (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin (all times local):

European Council President Donald Tusk has urged President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and China to work with Europe to avoid trade wars and prevent conflict and chaos.

Tusk was speaking Monday in Beijing at the opening of a summit between China and the European Union. He noted that Trump and Putin's summit in Helsinki would take place on the same day in Helsinki.

Of the summit, Tusk said: "We are all aware of the fact that the architecture of the world is changing before our very eyes and it is our common responsibility to make it a change for the better."

Tusk said Europe, China, the U.S. and Russia had a "common duty" not to destroy the global order but to improve it by reforming international trade rules.

President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin are ready to go one-on-one in Finland.

Their summit Monday in Helsinki will play out against a backdrop of fraying Western alliances, the investigation into Russian election meddling and fears that Moscow's aggression may go unpunished.

The meeting was condemned in advance by an assortment of members of Congress from both parties after the U.S. indictment last week of 12 Russians accused of hacking Democrats in the 2016 election to help Trump.

Undeterred, the American president is set to go face-to-face with Putin, the authoritarian leader for whom he has expressed admiration.

Questions are swirling about whether Trump will sharply rebuke his Russian counterpart for the election meddling that prompted a special counsel probe.</s>MOSCOW (NYTIMES) - When President Vladimir Putin of Russia sits down with President Donald Trump in Helsinki on Monday (July 16) for a meeting he has long wanted, he will already have accomplished virtually everything he could reasonably hope for.

All he really needs to make his meeting with Trump a success is for it to take place without any major friction - providing a symbolic end to Western efforts to isolate Russia over its actions against Ukraine in 2014, its meddling in the US election in 2016 and other examples of what the US Treasury Department has described as Russia's "malign activity" around the world.

"If Trump says, 'Let bygones be bygones because we have a world to run,' that is essentially what Moscow needs from this," said Vladimir Frolov, an independent foreign policy analyst in Moscow.

As with any negotiation, timing is everything, and Putin has been gaining a lot of momentum lately.

He will arrive in Helsinki after presiding over the final game of the World Cup soccer tournament in Moscow on Sunday, and will meet a US president who has spent the last week berating his Nato allies and undercutting his host in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May.

Even the indictment announced on Friday in Washington against 12 Russian military intelligence officers, which prompted some Democrats to demand the cancellation of the Helsinki meeting, could help Putin by playing into a conspiracy theory long embraced by both the Kremlin and the White House that the "deep state" is determined to sabotage Trump's outreach to Russia.

Right before the indictments were announced, in fact, Trump referred to the Russia investigation as a "rigged witch hunt" that "really hurts our relationship with Russia."

Anything that stokes divisions inside the United States, or between America and its allies, is viewed by Moscow as a victory.

Deploying hackers, disinformation campaigns and support for far-right populist forces in Europe, Putin has long sought to fracture the West and upend the established geopolitical order.

But Trump, who routinely attacks European leaders and has started a trade war with some of the United States' closest allies, is now effectively doing the job for him.

Trump's persistent tirades on the expense of Nato and his fury at the trade practices of the European Union, which he recently described as "possibly as bad as China, just smaller," have startled even Russian pundits who have for years watched as Putin, like Soviet-era leaders before him, tried in vain to undermine the trans-Atlantic alliance.

"We are witnessing something surprising, something that even the Soviet Union was not able to accomplish: Divide the US and Western Europe. It didn't work then, but it seems to be working with Mr Trump now," Tatyana Parkhalina, president of the Russian Association for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, said on a recent talk show on state-run television.

The summit offers Putin a chance to restore what he and Trump see as the natural order of world affairs, one in which traditional diplomatic alliances are not a given, smaller countries don't really matter and big powers act in their own self interest, above all else. That order includes Russia playing a central role, instead of being treated like a pariah or a second-rate has-been.

Whatever the outcome of their talks, the Russian president, thanks to the Kremlin's firm grip on all of Russia's national television channels, will be able to present his meeting with Trump as proof that his country has come in from the cold and that, as Trump suggested last month, Russia should be readmitted to the Group of 7 club of industrialised democracies.

Trump cannot unilaterally invite Putin back into the club.

Russia was ejected from it after the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. But by meeting with the Russian leader in Helsinki, Trump sends a message that, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said after meeting Mikhail S. Gorbachev in 1984, "we can do business together."

Putin is a firm believer that real leaders do not dither. They make deals, unencumbered by caviling aides and pernickety diplomats, as he and Trump will be when they meet in Helsinki. Only translators will be present.

Yet, while Putin might dream of a repeat of Yalta, the 1945 conference at which Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill carved up the world into spheres of influence, Russian officials have made clear that they do not expect a grand bargain to come out of Helsinki.

Mindful of the constraints on Trump, they have been playing down the prospect of any startling breakthroughs. They well know that, no matter what Trump agrees to with Putin, he still has to get it past a US establishment that remains deeply suspicious of Russia.

"We are well aware of the extent to which the American establishment is being held hostage to stereotypes and is under the heaviest domestic anti-Russian pressure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

He was responding to remarks by a Republican senator, John Kennedy, that "you can't trust Putin" and that dealing with Russian authorities was "like dealing with the mafia."

Trump has said that Putin - who has seen three previous US presidents come and go and frustrated each one's early hopes of a new dawn in relations - "may be the easiest" leader to deal with.

But that is a minority view in Russia as well as in the United States.

"Vladimir Putin will give a real master class to this inexperienced politician," predicted Sergei Mironov, the leader of A Just Russia, a nominally opposition political party that invariably echoes the Kremlin's line.

Mironov told a Sunday talk show on state-run television that the Russian president "will show the difference between Twitter politics and real politics."

Michael McFaul, a Stanford professor who was ambassador to Moscow under President Barack Obama and an architect of one of those ill-fated "resets" with Moscow, said Trump was unlikely to find Putin an easy leader to deal with unless he "delivers concessions without asking for anything in return."

Unlike Trump, who has to contend with public opinion and the checks and balances of a democracy, Putin largely has a free hand, though he has stoked so much anti-Western feeling in Russia that he cannot afford to make grand concessions. But that is not something he wants to do anyway.

Stephen Sestanovich, who served in the State Department under President Bill Clinton, said leaders should talk, and he disagreed with critics of Trump who say that he should avoid Putin.

But he cautioned that Trump could not afford to be too chummy with the Russian leader, lest he strengthen opposition to his foreign policy in Congress and in Europe.

"He has to handle it right or else his Helsinki love fest could just blow up," Sestanovich said.

That could happen, for example, if Trump repeats in Helsinki his performance in June in Singapore, where he met North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un, praised him and then pledged to end joint US military exercises with South Korea's military - a concession that Pyongyang had been demanding for years.

Ian Bond, a former British diplomat in Moscow who is now director for foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, a research group in London, said he would normally cheer any chance for leaders to sit down and hash out their problems.

But, he added, "Putin versus Trump is not an equal contest" because of the Russian leader's vastly superior knowledge of policy detail, his mastery of geopolitics and his past as a KGB officer schooled in the arts of persuasion, flattery and subterfuge.

"If he can get Trump to come out and say the sort of things he said after meeting with Kim Jong Un, that is a big win for Putin," Bond said.

"If he can get him to say that all the problems between Russia and America have been cooked up by the Ukrainians and America's deep state, or anything that leads in that direction, it will be a success for Putin," he added.

Bond predicted that Putin, well aware of what buttons to push with Trump, would urge the US leader to halt the United States' participation in Trident Juncture, one of Nato's largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War, which the Kremlin sees as a provocation.

The possibility that Putin, after months of frustration at Trump's inability to deliver on his repeated pledges to "get along with Russia," will have something to celebrate in Helsinki has led to an abrupt dialling down of the often venomous anti-American diatribes by Russia's state-controlled news outlets.

Alexei A. Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy, a Moscow radio station that has been allowed to maintain an independent editorial line, said that in eagerness to avoid offending Trump, the state news media, under orders from the Kremlin, had muted its frequent portrayal of the US president as a hapless captive of the "deep state," the supposed cabal of hidden power-brokers that the Kremlin has long blamed for all its problems with the United States.

Presenting Trump as a helpless prisoner of more powerful forces runs counter to the US leader's macho self-image, Venediktov said, so it had to be toned down to allow Trump to "display his manly qualities in Helsinki."

But no matter how well Trump and Putin may bond over their shared approach to leadership, few expect them to produce many concrete results beyond a vaguely worded statement pledging to work together and to refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs.

Putin cannot expect any lifting of sanctions, which would require approval by Congress, or any swift US recognition of Crimea as part of Russia.

They will also discuss Syria, particularly Iran's presence there; arms control; and the conflict in eastern Ukraine, provoked in 2014 by Russia's dispatch of arms and soldiers to support separatist rebels.

Ivan Kurilla, an expert on Russian-US relations at the European University at St. Petersburg, said that perhaps the most Putin could realistically expect from Trump was an agreement that their two countries would reopen consulates closed last year and that some of the Russian and US diplomats caught up in rounds of tit-for-tat expulsions would return to their posts.

Venediktov, the editor of Ekho Moskvy, said that Russia's political elite blamed Trump's failure to reach out to Putin earlier on the United States' "deep state."

But he added that they had never entirely lost faith that the US president would one day come through and cut a deal.

"Russia is not disappointed with Trump, but disappointed that the American system does not give the same powers to the president as the Russian system does," Venediktov said.

Putting relations on better footing, said Kurilla, the St. Petersburg scholar, is important for Putin but more so for Trump, who needs a more benign image of Russia to help stop his political opponents from using Moscow's meddling in the 2016 US election to undermine his own legitimacy.

"He wants to bring home a message that Russia is not America's enemy, not a diabolical power," just as President Ronald Reagan did after his meetings in the 1980s with Gorbachev, Kurilla said. "But he has miscalculated, because Putin is not like Gorbachev."</s>Former CIA Director John Brennan stated that President Donald Trump committed “treasonous” acts during his news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki, Finland.

He also called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to resign, apparently in response to Trump not condemning Russian efforts to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. elections.

“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors,'” Brennan tweeted.

The former Obama administration official continued, “It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???”

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Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution provides, “The President…shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

In an interview on MSNBC, following Monday’s joint Trump-Putin news conference, Brennan said, “I cannot understand how the national security team can continue to abide by this and how Mike Pompeo and Bolton and John Kelly can continue in their jobs.”

“This, I think, rises to the point of good American patriots resigning in objection to that performance by Donald Trump,” said Brennan, an MSNBC analyst.

When asked if he would denounce Putin, Trump said, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer.”

In response to the indictments of 12 Russian intelligence officers announced Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Putin stated his willingness to allow U.S. law enforcement to interface directly with their Russian counterparts to investigate the matter.

Trump also said he wants to know what happened to the Democratic National Committee’s server that was allegedly hacked into by Russians, according to the indictments.

“I want to know where is the server?” he said. “I want to know what is the server saying.”

“Why was the FBI asked to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?” Trump questioned. “I’ve been asking that for months and months.”

The president clearly sees special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe as a means for Democrats to delegitimize his election victory over Clinton.

“That was a clean campaign,” Trump said. “I beat Hillary Clinton easily, and frankly we beat her. We won that race and it’s a shame that there can even be a little bit of a cloud over it. The main thing and we discussed this also: zero collusion.”

Trump tweeted earlier on Monday, “President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it. When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!”

“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory,” McCain said in a statement. “The damage inflicted by Pres. Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., cast doubt on Brennan’s assessment, telling Fox News he was a “disaster’ as CIA director.

“He was a member of the Communist Party during the Cold War,” DeSantis said. “So this is not exactly the guy I would listen to about Russia.”

Fox reported that Brennan has admitted to voting for Gus Hall, the Communist Party USA presidential candidate, in 1976.

“(Trump’s) administration has been tougher on Russia than Obama,” DeSantis said. “He’s got a story to tell and I think that he should try to do that.”

While the former CIA chief tweeted that Trump is “wholly in the pocket of Putin,” the president has taken a much stronger stance to Russia than Brennan’s former boss did.

Trump is providing heavy military weaponry to the Ukraine, so the nation can better defend itself against Russia, which is something Obama refused to do.

The U.S. leader has also pushed member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to increase military expenditures, pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, chastised Germany for a natural gas pipeline deal with Russia, and ordered military strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, all clearly contrary Putin’s wishes too.

Obama was famously caught on a hot mic in March 2012 telling then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” regarding the issue of the placement of anti-missile defense in Eastern Europe, saying, “This is my last election.”

“I will transmit this information to Vladimir,” Medvedev responded.

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United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Helsinki.