Trump “Build a brighter future…we need to maintain a good relationship with Russia”

US President Donald Trump (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference. © AFP=News1

US President Donald Trump announced on the 16th (local time) that he had great confidence in US intelligence agencies. However, at a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he did not accept the conclusions of the US intelligence agency, which claimed Russian intervention during the 2016 US presidential election.

President Trump said on Twitter at’Air Force One’ returning to the United States after the summit meeting, “I have a lot of trust in the people of my intelligence agency, as I said several times today and before.”

“But in order to build a brighter future, we cannot be buried in the past,” Trump said.

President Trump did not criticize Putin for Russia’s intervention in the US presidential election earlier in the day at a joint press conference held immediately after the Mirror Summit in Helsinki.

President Trump said, “I very much trust our intelligence people, but President Putin strongly denied intervention in the presidential election.”

In response, Dan Kotz, director of the US National Intelligence Service (DNI), stated in a statement that “It is clear that Russia has intervened in the 2016 presidential election and is making continuous and multilateral efforts to undermine our democracy.”

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