Kremlin Denies Second Secret Meeting With Trump

Reuters reports:



The Kremlin said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not have “a secret meeting” at the G20 summit earlier this month, but confirmed they did chat informally over dinner.

The Kremlin was responding to questions about a previously undisclosed conversation between Trump and Putin that caused alarm among some U.S. politicians unhappy about Trump’s handling of U.S.-Russia relations.

When asked about the nature of the G20 dinner chat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters: “There was no secret second meeting.” The two men had chatted informally over dinner, said Peskov, and had discussed adoption.

Russian news agencies earlier on Thursday had cited Peskov as saying it was “absolutely absurd” to describe the informal dinner conversation between Putin and Trump as secret or undisclosed. “The use of a term like ‘undercover’ or ‘secret meeting’ raises eyebrows”, Peskov told state TV, according to the agencies.