Putin says wants to ‘fully restore’ Russia-US ties

Alexander NEMENOV (AFP)

FILE: Donald Trump glances at Russia’s Vladimir Putin ahead of a family photo during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in 2018

Putin also praised the Mueller report, calling it ‘an objective investigation’

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he wanted to “fully restore” strained ties between Washington and Moscow in a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Putin, who hosted Pompeo as his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, also commented on the recent Mueller report into Russian election interference, calling it “quite an objective investigation”.

“Despite the exotic nature of Mr Mueller’s commission, on the whole he conducted quite an objective investigation and confirmed the absence of any collusion between the US administration and Russia,” he said.

Pompeo conveyed a message from US President Donald Trump who wanted to make “our two peoples more successful and, frankly, the world more successful, too.”

“President Trump wants to do everything we can and he asked me to travel here to communicate that.

“Some of our cooperation has been excellent — on North Korea, on Afghanistan, we’ve done good work — (and) counter-terrorism work — together. These are things we can build upon.”

Pompeo came straight from a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, where the two foreign ministers discussed a variety of issues, such as Venezuela and Iran’s behavior in the Middle East.