GENEVA, June 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has been long accustomed to seeing the meaning of his words distorted by foreign mass media, and that he regards their omissions and attacks as "standard practice in international relations".

"As for the distortions, omissions or some attacks, they are the practice of international relations today. Nothing can be done about this. I've long grown accustomed to it. We have had to live with this for decades," he told the media following the Russian-US summit in Geneva.

TV broadcaster Zvezda correspondent Pavel Remnyov asked Putin if he found it fair the US side preferred to shun contacts with Russian mass media, while the Russian side granted interviews to foreign television broadcasters.

"About the interviews, what kind of interviews these are and who gives them. It is up to each leader or country in question to decide this, if there is the wish to explain something to the people. We try to do this. This is the reason behind my interviews to the US media," Putin said.

Earlier, the Russian leader granted an interview to the US television network NBC. It was Putin's first interview to US mass media over the past three years.