In Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US Presidents Donald Tramp. Earlier, the heads of state had already met twice in the framework of major international events - the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg in July 2017 and the APEC summit in Danang in November of the same year.
On July 16, the meeting was held in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Helsinki - a city with 600 thousand people. The Finnish authorities have adopted enhanced security measures, temporarily blocked part of the streets, introduced passport control at the borders with the EU countries. The event took place in the presidential palace.
Even before the meeting, Trump told reporters that he plans to discuss with the Russian president the issues of military and trade cooperation, relations with China. Putin, in turn, offered to "talk in detail" about the relations between the two countries and discuss "various pain points in the world". Initially, it was planned that the conversation between Putin and Trump in closed mode would last about an hour and a half, but it lasted more than 2 hours. Then, during a working breakfast, they were joined by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, US Ambassador to Russia John Huntsman, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, US National Security Advisor John Bolton and Special Assistant President of the USA Fiona Hill.
During breakfast, Trump appreciated the tete-a-tete conversation with Putin as "a very good start for everyone" and expressed the hope that it was a turning point in relations between Moscow and Washington. Putin called the meeting very successful and useful.
Then there was a small press conference with journalists who were allowed to ask only a couple of questions from the Russian and American sides. In his speech, Vladimir Putin said that the talks held in a businesslike and frank atmosphere corresponded to the mutual desire of both presidents "to rectify the negative situation in bilateral relations, to outline the first steps to improve them, restore an acceptable level of confidence and return to cooperation the previous level".
Donald Trump said that "diplomacy and teamwork is preferable to conflicts and hostile attitude, productive dialogue is good not only for the US and for Russia, but also good for the whole world".
The journalists' questions touched the world energy market, allegedly Russia's interference in US elections and compromising materials, which Russia, again, allegedly collected on Trump long before his presidency. The answers to the questions were thorough and complete.