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Reuters
The two leaders held a bilateral summit in Finland in July
President Donald Trump has invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to visit Washington next year, said US National Security Councilor John Bolton.
It is unclear whether Mr Putin accepted the invitation.
The two leaders met several times on the sidelines of international meetings but held only one bilateral summit in Helsinki in July.
They are expected to meet briefly in Paris next month to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.
At a press conference in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, Mr Bolton said: "We invited President Putin to Washington after the beginning of the year. [2019] for essentially a full day of consultations. We do not know very well what is planned in the calendar. "
Why could a visit be controversial?
The invitation comes amid tense relations between the two countries.
Mr. Bolton traveled to Moscow earlier this week to discuss the US project to withdraw the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a landmark agreement.
Russia denies Washington's allegations that it has violated the treaty and warned that its withdrawal would be a "dangerous step".
Special investigators in the United States are also examining an alleged interference by Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia is seeking to influence the elections in favor of President Trump. Russia rejects the allegations and Mr Trump denies the existence of any collusion.
Earlier this month, the US government indicted a Russian woman for her alleged role in a Kremlin-backed campaign to influence mid-term congressional elections next month.
In an interview on Friday at the Reuters news agency, Bolton drew up a list of complaints against Russia, including his allegations of electoral interference. his involvement in Crimea and in the east of Ukraine; the nervous agent attacked a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom; and his involvement in the Middle East.
- Ukraine defines Russia as an aggressor state
"It will be useful if they [the Russians] stop interfering in our elections … get out of Crimea and Donbass Ukraine … stop using illegal chemical weapons to carry out assassination attempts against Russian exiles of the 39, West, and they would be less intrusive in the Middle East, "he said," I said.
Mr. Bolton said that such behavior was what motivated US sanctions against Russia.
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EPA
John Bolton (R) recently had talks with President Putin at the Kremlin
The July meeting in the Finnish capital was particularly marked by the fact that Mr Trump appeared to question his own administration 's claims that Russia had ingested it in the 2016 election.
- What were the spinoffs of Helsinki?
This prompted Mr. Trump to rarely admit that he misrepresented himself.
Following this meeting, the White House announced that President Trump had invited Mr. Putin to Washington in the fall.
However, this decision was withdrawn due to an apparent lack of Kremlin enthusiasm and claims in the United States that Trump was trying to be too comfortable with the Russian leader.
