Kremlin assures Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki stayed within diplomatic boundaries

The Russian-US summit meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Helsinki last summer was tough, but only from the standpoint of the straightforwardness of the questions discussed, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Monday. This is how he commented on Trump’s remark in a CBS interview about the Helsinki summit with Putin was "very tough."

"All questions were put in a very straightforward manner. In this respect the meeting was really tough, because both presidents openly mentioned the irritants that exist in bilateral relations," Peskov said. "The problems were candidly called by their real names. In that sense the meeting was tough," he added. "As for the manner of the conversation - if he went beyond diplomatic politeness - well, he did not. Everything was within the established bounds."

He recalled that Putin himself told a news conference that the questions discussed at the summit had been in a very straightforward way.

Earlier, Trump said he followed a hard line in relations with Putin. The CBS interviewer asked the US commander-in-chief why he avoided criticizing the Russian president. "You don't know what I talked about with Putin in the meeting prior to the press conference. I'm the one that gave Ukraine offensive weapons and tank killers." He recalled that his predecessor Barak Obama had refrained from that decision and also was "the one that gave away a part of Ukraine," to Russia.

"I think I'm very tough with him personally. I had a meeting with him. The two of us. It was a very tough meeting and it was a very good meeting," Trump said about Putin.

Putin and Trump met in Helsinki on July 16. The Russian leader spoke highly about the results of that summit, but at the same time remarked that nobody had ever expected all the problems in bilateral relations were going to be resolved.