Putin's idea for a referendum in Ukraine rejected by the White House



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The White House rejected the initiative of Vladimir Putin to hold a referendum on the future of the region in eastern Ukraine, following the controversial summit of President Donald Trump with the Russian leader. The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said that the two leaders had discussed the possibility of a referendum in eastern Ukraine separatist at the summit of Helsinki, 19659002. Russia and the Ukrainian government for the resolution of the conflict in the Donbass region do not include any such option and any effort to organize a so-called referendum would have "no legitimacy".

Comings and goings came The White House presented the agenda of a second summit between Trump and Putin – in Washington this fall – that would focus on national security. Moscow signaled its opening for a second formal meeting between the two leaders as Trump's criticism of his first major session with his Russian counterpart maintained in the United States

Trump left the White House for his New Jersey golf club for the weekend. Once he arrived, he returned to Twitter to complain about the coverage of Monday's meeting.

"I've been severely criticized by the Fake media for being too nice to President Putin," he tweeted. "In the old days, they called it Diplomacy: if I was noisy and vicious, I would have been criticized for being too hard."

A White House official said that the next Trump-Putin meeting would deal with the national security issues they discussed. in Helsinki, including Russian interference. The official did not specify whether this meant Russia's interference in the US elections. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss planning, said the talks would also focus on nuclear proliferation, North Korea, Iran and Syria

. Leader Nancy Pelosi urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to clarify that Putin would not be invited to address Congress when he was traveling to Washington.

She said that Putin's fear was an embarrassment and a serious threat to our democracy. 19659003] State Secretary Mike Pompeo had a more enlightened vision of the likely second meeting.

He told the United Nations that he was "happy that the two leaders of two very important countries continue to meet, I do not think this meeting takes place before or after the November Congress elections in United States

A White House This meeting would be a dramatic extension of the legitimacy of the Russian leader, long isolated by the West for its activities in Ukraine, Syria and beyond, and which would have interfered in the future. 39: Presidential election of 2016 that sent Trump to the presidency.No Russian leader has visited the White House for nearly a decade.

US Officials have talked about what the two leaders have accepted in Helsinki, during a two-hour one-on-one meeting.The director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, said Thursday that he had not yet been informed of the closed session

The Government Russian has been a little more open.Putine made "concrete proposals" to Trump on solutions for the four-year Russia-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, which made more than 10,000 dead. He did not specify what Putin's solutions would be.

This initiative could be seen as an effort to circumvent European peace efforts in Ukraine and increase pressure on the Ukrainian government in its protracted conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region. As a sign of support for the Ukrainian government, the Pentagon announced on Friday that it would provide $ 200 million in additional training, equipment and advisory assistance to the Ukrainian military.

Trump tweeted Thursday that he was hoping for a "second meeting" with Putin and defended his performance at Monday's summit, during which the two leaders conferred on a range of issues, including terrorism, Israeli security, nuclear proliferation and North Korea

problems … but they can all be solved! Trump tweeted.

In Moscow, Antonov said that it is important to "treat the results" of the first summit before jumping too fast into a new high. But he said: "Russia was always open to such proposals. "

The White House is still trying to clean up Trump's post-summit statements about Russia's interference in the 2016 elections. Trump's public doubt about Russia's responsibility at a joint press conference with Putin on Monday provoked sharp criticism from Republicans and Democrats and forced the president to publicly admit the mistake

. He disagrees with the Putin's offer to allow the United States to interrogate 12 Russians accused of electoral interference in exchange for Russian talks with the former US ambassador to Russia and other Americans accused of crimes not specified by the Kremlin: At first, Trump had described the idea as an "incredible offer".

The return of the White House came just before the Senate voted overwhelmingly against this idea

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Angela Charlton in Moscow, Deb Riechmann in Aspen, Colorado, and Lisa Mascaro, Matthew Daly, Darlene Superville and Susannah George in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Miller on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@ZekeJMiller and Thomas at http: / /twitter.com/@KThomasDC

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