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Putin may attend 2026 FIFA World Cup, Trump says

Speaking to reporters at the White House, the US president showed a photo of himself and Vladimir Putin, which had been taken at the recent Russia-US summit in Alaska

WASHINGTON, August 22. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin may attend the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, US leader Donald Trump said.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump showed a photo of himself and Putin, which had been taken at the recent Russia-US summit in Alaska.

"That's a man named Vladimir Putin, who I believe will be coming [to the World Cup], depending on what happens, he may be coming and he may not, depending on what happens. We have a lot of things happening over the next couple of weeks, but I thought it was a nice picture of him," Trump noted.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place in the US, Mexico and Canada between June 11 and July 19. Russia’s national team has been suspended from international conventions since February 2022.

Russia-US summit

President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Donald Trump of the United States held a meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on August 15. The meeting lasted about three hours, including a one-on-one in the US leader’s limo on the way to the summit’s venue and a closed-door event that also involved two delegation members on each side: Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov represented Russia, while Secretary of State and Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff represented the US.

Putin told the media after the talks that the parties had focused on resolving the Ukraine conflict. The Russian leader also called for turning the page in bilateral relations and going back to cooperation. Putin invited Trump to visit Moscow. The US leader, in turn, pointed to progress in the negotiation process but noted that the parties had not been able to agree on all issues.

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Vladimir Putin United States Donald Trump

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