The Russian foreign ministry on Monday tweeted "we agree" in response to a tweet from President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE referring to the investigation of the 2016 presidential election as a “Rigged Witch Hunt.” Trump also wrote on Twitter that “years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity” are to blame for poor U.S.-Russia relations ahead of his summit on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "We agree," responded MFA Russia on its official account. We agree https://t.co/7l087Qwmj3 — MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) July 16, 2018 Trump has said that he will bring up the issue of election meddling in his meeting with Putin, as he said he has done in the past. But he said he expected Putin to again deny that Russia had any role in the election. ADVERTISEMENT “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,” he said Friday. The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia interfered in the election, and 12 Russian individuals were indicted Friday as part of special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerSenate Democrats urge Garland not to fight court order to release Trump obstruction memo Why a special counsel is guaranteed if Biden chooses Yates, Cuomo or Jones as AG Barr taps attorney investigating Russia probe origins as special counsel MORE's probe for their role in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. Trump said Sunday that while he “hadn’t thought of” asking Trump to extradite the intelligence officers, he would “certainly” ask about it.<doc-sep>As President Donald Trump prepared to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a tweet it agrees with Trump’s earlier message that U.S. “foolishness and stupidity” is the reason for a low point in relations between the two countries. “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity,” Trump tweeted on Monday morning. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs retweeted Trump’s message, adding simply, “We agree.” Trump sent the tweet early Monday morning from Helsinki, where he was preparing to meet Putin for the first time since November 2017. The two leaders were scheduled to meet alone on Monday, accompanied solely by interpreters, for up to 90 minutes. Putin showed up an hour late for the meeting. The U.S.-Russian relationship has been marred by a number of recent complications, not least of which are allegations that Moscow tampered with the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. In his Monday morning tweet, Trump referenced those charges, and investigations into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia, as a “rigged witch hunt.” On Friday of last week, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced charges against a handful of Russian intelligence officials for hacking Democratic targets in the U.S. Earlier, Trump had personally congratulated Putin for putting on “one of the best ever” World Cup tournaments, following France’s victory in the final on Sunday. Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Write to Billy Perrigo at billy.perrigo@time.com.<doc-sep>Russia may have already won the first point in the historic summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin — before the two leaders even shook hands. About four hours before the meeting in Helsinki was set to begin on Monday, Trump tweeted that “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!” — referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible Trump campaign collusion during the 2016 presidential election. The main point of his message was clear: America is to blame for bad Washington-Moscow relations, not the Kremlin. And 40 minutes before the meeting, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to Trump’s tweet with two words: “We agree.” That’s stunning. Trump and Russia are now — very publicly — on the same page about why they believe ties between the two countries are so poor. That could serve as a huge propaganda win for Russia, which has spent decades bashing the US for Moscow’s economic and political problems. Trump could, of course, have blamed some of Moscow’s transgressions on the country, much of which occurred under Putin. Here’s just a quick list: Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, in part by using intelligence officers to leak Hillary Clinton’s emails, among other things. We know this because of Mueller’s indictments last Friday against 12 members of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, a southern Ukrainian peninsula, and invaded Eastern Ukraine. Moscow likely poisoned a former Russian spy and his daughter and Britain and killed another British woman with that poison in the UK. Russia backs Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who has killed hundreds of thousands of people— some with chemical weapons — during the seven-year Syrian civil war. There’s more, but you get the idea. Experts from across the political spectrum denounced Trump’s comments Monday morning. Trump may not mind that, though, since he’s got Russia on his side.<doc-sep>Russia’s Foreign Ministry has given a laconic but comprehensive reply to Donald Trump’s tweet, in which he claimed that US-Russia ties have “never been worse” due to years of Washington’s “foolishness and stupidity.” “We agree,” the ministry tweeted succinctly on Monday, minutes before Trump and Vladimir Putin began their meeting in Helsinki with a handshake and a pledge to discuss all the differences between their nations. READ MORE :Putin & Trump shake hands ahead of face-to-face summit in Helsinki Earlier on Monday, the US president took to his favorite platform – Twitter – to describe the extent of the sour ties between Moscow and Washington. “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt! (sic)” Trump wrote. The relationship between Russia and the US is probably at its lowest point since the end of the Cold War. Trump earlier stressed that he was going into the summit with “low expectations,” adding that “nothing bad is going to come out of it and maybe some good will come out of it.” He also caused waves of heated discussion across the internet after tweeting that even if he were granted Moscow as retribution; his critics would say it’s not good enough. READ MORE: US-Russia ties have ‘never been worse’ thanks to US ‘foolishness and stupidity’ – Trump US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insists that the prospect of improving ties between Moscow and Washington is in Russia’s hands. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, however, believes that the Putin will definitely put Russia’s interests first but will respect Trump’s ‘reciprocal beliefs.’ “This principle works for any head of state. Any head of state, when talking to their foreign counterparts, has to take care of the interests of their state,” Peskov added, speaking to RT. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!<doc-sep>
The Russian foreign ministry on Monday expressed approval for a tweet from President Donald Trump that blamed the US for the poor state of US-Russia relations. The interaction led critics to slam Trump for seeming to parrot a foreign power's talking points over the country he leads. Trump's tweet came shortly before he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. The Russian foreign ministry on Monday expressed approval for a tweet from President Donald Trump that blamed the US for the poor state of US-Russia relations. "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 tweeted. Subsequently, the Russian foreign ministry's official account liked Trump's tweet and retweeted it. "We agree," it said. Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has frequently blamed the poor state of US-Russia relations on US government policy and actions from the Obama administration — in particular downplaying or denying incendiary actions like interfering in the 2016 US presidential election, its role in the Syria conflict, and its annexation of Crimea in 2014. This interaction gained attention on Twitter, with critics slamming Trump for seeming to side with a foreign power over the country he leads. Trump's tweet came shortly before he met with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Trump's meeting with Putin occurred just days after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's probe. Trump has been under pressure to address Russian election interference with Putin, which he pledged to do ahead of their meeting. But critics remain skeptical about Trump's relationship with Putin and some members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, called for the president to cancel his meeting with the Russian leader after the indictment last week. As Trump greeted Putin on Monday, he said, "I think we will end up having an extraordinary relationship." The meeting with Putin comes on the heels of a NATO summit in Brussels, where Trump drew criticism for insulting US allies, as well as an at-times awkward visit to the UK in which Trump was met with nationwide protests.