The White House announced on Friday that President Donald Trump is “open” to visiting Moscow, but only if he receives an official invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported.
“He is open to visiting Moscow upon receiving a formal invitation,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
“Trump looks forward to having President Putin to Washington after the first of the year,” Sanders added.
Sanders’ comment came after Putin said that he has invited Trump to the Russian capital for a second one-on-one meeting.
Putin also stated that he is “ready to come to Washington” to visit with Trump if the conditions are right.
Trump first invited Putin to come to Washington, D.C., in the fall. The invitation happened after the summit in Helsinki, Finland, for which Trump was criticized by both parties for not confronting the Russian leader over election interference publicly.
However, the White House canceled the invitation earlier this week shortly after the Kremlin did not accept the invitation to Putin.
National Security Adviser John Bolton stated that Trump is sure that his next meeting with Putin should occur next year after the special counsel probe into Russia’s election interference is over.
Meanwhile, the Russian lawyer in the middle of a controversial June 2016 meeting involving Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner has collaborated more closely with the Russian government than she has previously stated, Fox News informed citing the Associated Press.
Documents collected from an investigative unit run by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky portray Natalia Veselnitskaya as a well-connected attorney who served as a ghostwriter for top Russian government lawyers and received aid from senior Interior Ministry personnel.
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