HAMBURG, July 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin assumes a certain groundwork for a recovery of relations between Russia and the United States has been laid.
"I hope very much (that the relationship between Moscow and Washington will recover - TASS), and it seems to me that a certain groundwork for this has been laid," he told a press conference following the G20 summit in Hamburg on Saturday.
Putin has said that he has been able to establish personal relations with US President Donald Trump and this may help restore bilateral relations. "As for personal relations, I believe that they have been established," the Russian leader said.
"I don’t know how this may sound but I’ll say what I see: Trump on TV differs very strongly from the real person," Putin said, explaining that the US president "is an absolutely concrete person who perceives an interlocutor absolutely adequately, analyzes quickly enough and responds to the formulated questions or some new elements that arise during a discussion."
"It seems to me that if we build relations in the manner, in which our talk proceeded yesterday, there are all the grounds to believe that we will be able at least partially to restore the level of interaction that we need," the Russian president said.
US elections
Putin has said that his US counterpart Donald Trump repeatedly raised the issue of Moscow’s alleged interference in the US elections at a meeting on Friday.
According to the Russian leader, Trump took note of the arguments that Moscow had never meddled in the US political process and, probably, agreed with them.
"He [Trump] asked many questions on this issue. I answered all these questions as far as I was able to answer them. It seems to me that he took note of this and agreed but you should ask him about how he perceived this," Putin told journalists.
Putin said on Saturday he believed that US leader Donald Trump was content with information on Russia’s non-interference in the US presidential elections.
"He [Trump] started to ask suggestive questions and he was really interested in some details. And I answered all these questions as far as I was able to answer them in detail," the Russian leader said, speaking on Russia’s non-interference in the US presidential elections.
"It seemed to me that he was content with these answers," the Russian leader said.
US journalists asked Putin to tell them about the details of his meeting with Trump and about that part of the talk that related to the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.
"You should ask about how he [Trump] perceived this, perceived my answers while with regard to what had happened - nothing had occurred as we had not meddled," the Russian leader said.
The American journalists lamented that they actually had no information on this score from the US White House. "We’ll strongly indicate this to them," Putin said jokingly.
After that, the Russian leader switched to a serious tone and said that in his talk with Trump he even retold him the dialogues held with the previous administration led by Barack Obama.
"I don’t think I have the right to tell the details [of the talk] with President Obama. This is not accepted in world practice at this level. Likewise, it would be incorrect to tell you in details about my talk with President Trump," the Russian leader noted.
As Putin said, "He [Trump] asked me and I answered him, he asked suggestive questions and I explained them."
Putin called important his agreement with Trump that "there shouldn’t be the situation of uncertainty in these spheres, especially in the future."
The Russian president noted that he had mentioned this at the G20 summit’s last session devoted to economic digitalization as this had relation to cyberspace and the Internet.
"We agreed with the US president that we would set up a working group and will work together on how to jointly control security in the field of cyberspace and how to ensure the full compliance with international law norms in this sphere, how to prevent interference in the internal affairs of foreign states - the talk is primarily about Russia and the United States," the Russian leader said.
"We believe that if we manage to organize this work - and I have no grounds to doubt this - then there will be no more speculations on this issue," the Russian president said.
Russia does not intend to interfere in German elections
Russia does not intend to interfere in German elections, Russian President told reporters.
"I have told you that we did not interfere in the US, so why should we create problems for ourselves here?" Putin said. "We have warm relations with the Federative Republic. It is our largest trade and economic partner in the country dimension in Europe and one of our leading trade partners in the world."
Russia and Germany have major joint projects on the agenda, like the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, he said.
"There are loads of some sort of fables, disputes and even resistance around it. However, it is totally evident that this is in the interests of Germany’s economy which is giving up nuclear energy," he said. "Why on earth should one interfere in the domestic political process after that?"
Putin urged to analyze European and German media outlets, which, he said, "incessantly meddles with our domestic affairs."
"Since we feel confident, it does not bother us," Putin said in conclusion.
Conflict in Syria
Washington’s position on the Syrian settlement has become more pragmatic, Putin said.
"We regard to Syria, we discussed this issue actually with all my interlocutors," Putin said, responding to a question from TASS.
"Has the US changed its position? It seems to me that it has become more pragmatic," the Russian president said.
"As a whole, it [the US position on Syria] seems to be unchanged but there is understanding that by uniting efforts we can achieve a lot," the Russian leader said.
"I can say that yesterday’s agreement on the southern de-escalation zone is, as you know, no matter how anyone may react to this, one of the breakthroughs which we managed to achieve, by the way, during the work with President [Donald] Trump," Putin said.
"This is the real result of the joint work, including with the United States," the Russian leader said.
"Jordan and some other countries of the region have been involved in this work. We have held consultations with Israel and will hold them further in the near future," Putin said.
Putin said that de-escalation zones in Syria should become a prototype of areas that will cooperate with one another and with Damascus.
"The most crucial thing is to eventually ensure Syria’s territorial integrity so that those de-escalation zones can become a prototype of the territories which would be able to cooperate with one another and with official Damascus," Putin said, answering a TASS question.
The Russian president noted that relevant provisions were also rubber-stamped in the agreement with the United States on the de-escalation zone in south Syria.
"We have approved it as well as in the documents on creation of a zone in the south with access to the Jordanian border and adjoining Golan Heights," Putin added.
A cessation of hostilities and de-escalation zones in Syria is a good result of meticulous work, Putin said.
"The fact that active hostilities have been stopped, that is what we are doing now, is already a good result," Putin said, answering a TASS question. "Now we should reach an agreement on what concrete borders of those zones will be like and who will ensure security in those zones."
"It is meticulous, at first sight even dull, but extremely necessary work," he added.
At the same time, he said that the work on de-escalation zones is still ongoing.
"We have discussed this in detail with the Turkish president. It does not depend on us substantially. Many things are linked to divisions among the regional nations," he continued. "Each has own concerns, preferences, interests, even legitimate interests, and one should regard it in this respect - as legitimate interests. Compromises should be sought out. Sometimes we manage to do it."
"Basing on that positive experience reached recently and basing on goodwill of Iran, Turkey, and, certainly the Syrian government and President [Bashar al-Assad], we can take further steps," Putin added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump reached an agreement on a ceasefire in the de-escalation zone in south Syria at their first face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7.
Ukraine crisis
Russian President is convinced that the interests of the Russian and Ukrainian people coincide.
"Interests of Russia are congruent with those of Ukraine and the interests of the Russians are congruent with those of the Ukrainians, and I am deeply convinced in this, just absolutely convinced. Our interests totally coincide," Putin told a news conference after the end of the G20 summit in the German city of Hamburg on Saturday.
"Maybe, the interests of incumbent Ukrainian leadership and certain political quarters of the present-day Ukraine are not coincident," he added.
Both nations are motivated to cooperate for their economies’ growth, he said. Nevertheless, politicians in Ukraine believe it possible to disregard this fact and so "they have just one product left for successful trading, and that is Russophobia."
"Apart from that, they are trading the policy of Russia’s separation from Ukraine, of pulling the two nations and the two states aside," he added. Someone likes it in the West. Someone believes that no rapprochement between Russia and Ukraine must be allowed on any basis."
"The current Ukrainian leadership actively and quite successfully sell this product, but I feel this will come to an end someday," Putin emphasized.
He said that Russia is interested in the quickest settlement of the situation in Ukraine and in developing relations with that country.
"We want this situation [the Ukraine crisis] to end as quickly as possible," the Russian president said at a press conference after the G20 summit.
Putin said he had discussed the issues of the Ukrainian settlement with US President Donald Trump.
According to the Russian leader, they agreed on appointing a special representative of the US White House to deal with this problem on a permanent basis in contact with all the parties concerned.
Kurds issue
Russia communicates with some representatives of the Kurds, but lacks behind the United States in providing them with military aid, Russian President said.
"As for the Kurds issue, it is largely a big and multifaceted problem. We are in contact with lots of Kurdish units and do not keep it secret. But from the point of view of combat support to their activity, perhaps, our American counterparts are far ahead of us.".