Putin calls Trump “very concrete.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly said Saturday that President Trump is a very different person on television than he is in person after meeting with the U. S. leader.
“Trump on television very much differs from the man in reality, ” Putin said at a press conference, according to a translation by Wall Street Journal reporter Anton Troianovski.
“He is very concrete, he fully perceives his interlocutor, and he analyzes and answers questions or new elements that come in the course of the discussion quickly enough, ” Putin added.
The Kremlin leader said if the two leaders can continue to have more conversations like they did on Friday then the diplomatic relationship between their respective countries could improve.
“I think that if we can build our new relationship in the spirit of our first conversation, then we will have every reason to expect that we will at least in part be able to restore the level of cooperation that we need, ” Putin said.
Both leaders largely praised each other following their meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, with Trump calling the meeting “tremendous.”
Trump and his Russian counterpart discussed a variety of issues including the Syrian civil war, terrorism, cybersecurity and the past tensions between the U. S. and Russia, officials said.
The highly anticipated meeting took place amid ongoing federal and congressional investigations into the whether Trump campaign aides colluded with Russia in the election.
Trump confronted Putin on the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, but critics have questioned how strongly he addressed the issue.
Top Democrats criticized Trump for the meeting, with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling it an “embarrassment to our country and our ideals.”
