Vladimir Putin met with President Donald Trump at the G20 Summit, and when Trump reportedly brought up Russia’s hacking of the presidential elections on Friday, the Russian president denied doing it.
Apparently, that was good enough for Trump, and Putin said as much during his press conference Saturday.
“[Trump] asked a lot of questions on this subject, I was able to answer—answered all of these questions,” Putin said, via CBS News. “I think he took this into consideration and agreed, but, in fact, how he reacted to this … ask him.”
Unfortunately for anybody who’d like to hear from Trump on the matter, he declined to have a post-Summit press conference, unlike most of the other foreign leaders in attendance.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Trump had accepted Putin’s denial, though that wasn’t quite the story put out by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday.
“I think the president is rightly focused on how do we move forward from something that may be an intractable disagreement at this point,” Tillerson said.
Earlier this week, Trump said he thought Russia had interfered.
“Well, I think it was Russia, and I think it could have been other people and other countries. Could have been a lot of people interfered,” Trump said. “I said it very simply. I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries—and I won’t be specific, but I think a lot of people interfere.”
Either way, the Russian president said the relationship between Putin and Trump had been “established” at the Summit.
“I do not know how this will sound, but I will say as I see it: Trump on TV is very different from the real person,” Putin said.
