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Trump: 'I Strongly Pressed' Putin on Russian Meddling, Now Time to 'Move Forward'

(Updated)

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin / Getty
July 9, 2017

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that he "strongly pressed" Russian President Vladimir Putin about Kremlin meddling in the U.S. election and that Putin denied it during their G-20 meeting, adding it was time to "move forward."

"I strongly pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I've already given my opinion," he wrote.

He discussed in a follow-up tweet the negotiated ceasefire announced Friday in the Syrian conflict, where Putin backs the Bashar al-Assad regime and Washington is allied with anti-Assad rebels, and said it was time to "move forward in working constructively with Russia."

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the only other top U.S. official present at Putin and Trump's meeting on Friday, said the pair had a "robust" exchange on the subject. The meeting, scheduled to last a half-hour, wound up going over two hours.

Trump's tweets Sunday indicate there will be no punitive measures by his administration against Russia for its conduct, however.

The New York Times reported Russia was pleased with the outcome of the meeting, writing Putin felt Trump accepted his answers over the issue of election interference and the stage had been set for improved relations going forward.

Top U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Russia engaged in an extensive cyber campaign to wreak havoc on the U.S. election process.

Trump also said they discussed "forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe."

Trump, who claimed last week that "everyone" was talking about John Podesta and the DNC not handing over their server to federal authorities, added that "questions were asked about why the CIA & FBI had to ask the DNC times for their SERVER, and were rejected."

Finally, Trump wrote nothing would be done about Russian sanctions until the crises in Ukraine and Syria were resolved.

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UPDATE: 8:43 A.M.: This article was updated with additional tweets by Trump.