Putin calls meeting with Trump successful

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the recent meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump a "success," but he warned about resistance in Washington to implement the agreements reached between the two leaders.

"It is important that a full-format meeting took place, which permitted us to talk directly. In general, it was a success and led to useful agreements," Putin said at a conference of Russian ambassadors.

He said that with all the differences between Russia and the United States, the two leaders agreed that bilateral relations are in an "extremely unsatisfactory state" and in various aspects they are even worse than during the Cold War.

Putin said that it is naive to expect problems that have been stockpiling for years to be solved in a few hours.

But a path forward has been opened, he said.

Putin said he saw attempts in the United States to downplay the results of the summit in Helsinki on Monday.

Putin warned that some forces in the United States are willing to sacrifice the interests of their businesses, which are losing multi-million-dollar contracts and the Russian market as a whole.

These forces are ready to sacrifice the interests of their allies in Europe and the Middle East, in particular, Israel, by resisting efforts to guarantee the security of its borders with Syria, Putin said.

He said these forces are also willing to sacrifice their own security, refusing to extend the new Russia-US Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty which expires in 2021.

These people, according to Putin, are so powerful that they can impose illogical ideas on millions of their compatriots.

Russia is open to contacts with the United States on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, Putin said.