IN BRIEF (Page 11)

Russia

Putin says US ties getting worse

President Vladimir Putin said relations between Moscow and Washington were getting steadily worse, noting in an interview published on Thursday that the current the US administration had imposed dozens of sanctions on Russia. Putin made the assessment ahead of a G20 summit in Japan later this month at which he might meet US President Donald Trump. US-Russia ties remain strained by everything from Syria to Ukraine as well as allegations of Russian interference in US politics, which Moscow denies. "They (our relations) are going downhill, they are getting worse and worse," Putin told the Mir TV channel, according to a Kremlin transcript.