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Despite criticism, Trump looks to next Putin meeting and blames U.S. for marring first summit

By Doina Chiacu and Andrew Osborn

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed forces within the United States on Thursday for marring what they called the success of their first summit, with Trump saying he looked forward to their second meeting.

Trump, struggling to quiet an uproar over his failure to confront Putin over Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election at Monday’s summit in Helsinki, fell back on one of his favorite targets – the news media – while U.S. lawmakers considered fresh legislative action targeting Moscow.

The Republican president accused the media of distorting comments in which he gave credence to Putin’s denials of election interference despite the conclusions of the American intelligence community about Moscow’s conduct.

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“The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media,” Trump, who has faced criticism from lawmakers in both parties after the summit, wrote on Twitter.

“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,” Trump said.

In Moscow, Putin said “powerful” U.S. forces were trying to sabotage the summit’s achievements, but said he and Trump had begun to improve U.S.-Russia ties anyway.

“It was successful overall and led to some useful agreements. Of course, let’s see how events will develop further,” Putin said in remarks to Russian diplomats from around the world, without disclosing the nature of the agreements to which he referred.

“We see that there are forces in the United States that are prepared to casually sacrifice Russian-U.S. relations, to sacrifice them for their ambitions in an internal political battle in the United States,” Putin said.

Putin did not name names, but spoke of U.S. politicians who put their “narrow party interests” above the best interests of the United States and were powerful enough to be able to foist their questionable “stories” on millions of Americans.

CONFLICTING STATEMENTS

Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers grappled with Trump’s conflicting statements about the summit as well as what they did not know: exactly what the two leaders discussed in their private meeting and what agreements, if any, were reached.

Republicans voted down a motion offered by Democrats in the House of Representatives intelligence committee to subpoena the American interpreter who witnessed Trump’s meeting with Putin.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he asked two Senate panels to recommend additional action aimed at preventing future Russian election meddling and hold hearings on an existing Russia sanctions law.

American intelligence agencies last year announced their conclusion that Russia carried out a campaign of hacking and propaganda targeting the 2016 U.S. election in an attempt to sow discord, disparage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and aid Trump’s candidacy. Putin has denied any such meddling.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen publicly reaffirmed their confidence in the findings after the Helsinki meeting.

In a bill gaining momentum in the Senate, sanctions targeting key Russian economic sectors would kick in swiftly if U.S. authorities determine Moscow ever again interferes in an American election.

A number of U.S. lawmakers rejected a Russian proposal, which the White House said it was considering, to question in the United States Americans sought by the Kremlin for “illegal activities,” including former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul and London-based financier Bill Browder.

“I don’t think there is one member of Congress, on either side of the aisle, that believes it is remotely smart to require our former ambassador, Mr. Browder or any other person to submit to interviews by Putin’s government,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said. “Because there is no rule of law, as I said, in Russia. There is just rule of Putin.”

Democratic U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell said if Trump allowed Russians to question McFaul, “you can count on me and millions of others to swiftly make you an ex-president.”

Republican Senator Marco Rubio urged the White House on Twitter to “publicly & unequivocally rule it out.”

McFaul, ambassador to Russia under Democratic former President Barack Obama and a critic of both Trump and Putin, expressed deep concern that the White House failed to defend him.

U.S. prosecutors have offered mounting evidence concerning Russian election meddling. Special Counsel Robert Mueller secured an indictment last Friday charging 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016 as part of a wide-ranging conspiracy.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Richard Cowan, Lisa Lambert, Susan Heavey in Washington and Andrew Osborn and Olesya Astakhova in Moscow; Editing by Will Dunham)

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