Russia 'open' to Putin visit after Trump's invite, top envoy says

US president was widely criticised for his performance in Helsinki

Moscow is ready to discuss a visit to Washington by president Vladimir Putin, Russia’s top envoy to the US has said.

A day after Donald Trump stunned many with his surprise invitation to the Russian leader, while still trying to defend their controversial meeting in Helsinki on Monday, ambassador Anatoly Antonov said Russia believed it was “important to deal with the results” of their first summit before jumping too fast into a new one.

Mr Antonov told Associated Press while he had not seen the invitation from the White House, “Russia was always open to such proposals. We are ready for discussions on this subject”.

Mr Trump triggered bipartisan fury in Congress during his visit to Finland when, at a joint press conference with Mr Putin, he appeared to question his own intelligence agencies’ conclusion Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He seemed to place as much importance on the denial by Mr Putin as he did to the view of Dan Coats, his director of national intelligence.

Mr Trump and the White House were forced to spend several days in damage limitation mode, claiming the president had misspoken in Helsinki, that he held Mr Putin personally responsible for the 2016 hacking and vowing his government would prevent any such repeated interference during the 2018 midterm elections.

On Thursday morning Mr Trump had tweeted: “The summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media.

“I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more.”

Despite that, when White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted a few hours later the president had instructed national security adviser John Bolton to approach Mr Putin and invite him to the nation’s capital in the autumn, it came as a surprise to most.

It certainly came as a surprise to Mr Coats, who was appearing on stage at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, where he was informed of Mr Trump’s invitation.

Mr Coats, who had issued a statement contradicting Mr Trump’s comment in Helsinki, said: “Say that again. Did I hear you?”

When his interviewer confirmed the news, he responded: “Okaaaay. That’s going to be special.”

AP said Mr Antonov gave a few more details of what Mr Trump and Mr Putin talked about in Helsinki, but insisted diplomatic discussions should remain discreet to be effective. He claimed the two men discussed a possible referendum in eastern Ukraine.

“This issue was discussed,” he said, adding without elaborating that Mr Putin made “concrete proposals” to Mr Trump on solutions for the Ukraine conflict.

While Mr Trump tweeted the two men discussed Ukraine, he did not mention a possible referendum, and has not revealed specifics of the Ukraine discussions. The US and Russia have been on opposing sides of the conflict in Ukraine, which erupted after a popular uprising against a pro-Russian president and Russia’s subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Ukraine and European powers are unlikely to support a referendum in the Donbass region, where pro-Russian separatists hold sway.