Putin: Russia Ready to Improve Ties with US, The Ball Is Now in Washington’s Court

Putin pointed out that Trump has been implementing the promises he made during his election campaign. "One of the promises was to improve US-Russian relations. I hope that it will happen, at least we are ready for that and I think that the ball is in the US court," the Russian president stressed, TASS news agency reported.

"We are ready to boost, deepen and improve relations with the United States," Putin said adding that "various tools may be used for that, including personal meetings (between the two countries’ leaders)."

In response to Brilev’s question as to whether he was concerned about the possibility that even if friendly relations were established between the two presidents, the US may still put forward conditions unacceptable for Russia, Putin said that "it does not work with anyone."

"Relations between leaders should be appropriate and civilized but it does not rule out decisions that leaders believe to be important for their countries," the Russian president noted.

"One can take the US decisions, including those made by the US president, in different ways, they may be criticized as there are lots of things worth criticizing. However, there is one thing I have already pointed to - Trump is implementing his campaign promises," Putin added.

"We believe that such personal meetings are expedient and not only possible. We met with the US president at various international venues. But, of course, this does not give a possibility to pay necessary and due attention to the Russian-US relations," Putin said.

"Generally, I consider such a meeting to be useful. The only question is that the internal political situation in the United States should make it possible to do this," the Russian leader said.

Responding to the anchorman’s question about what results the negotiations with Trump might produce, considering that the US president was to a certain degree "a hostage to the internal US political process," Putin said he hoped that "the dialogue can be constructive."

"My experience of communication with the US president suggests that although his actions are frequently criticized, especially lately, including on the international scene and in the economic sphere, this experience tells me after all that he is a thoughtful person who can listen to and who responds to arguments given by his interlocutor. All this gives me the grounds to believe that the dialogue can be constructive," the Russian president said.