Putin blasts 'certain forces' in the US that want to 'disavow the results' of Trump meeting originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised his summit with President Donald Trump this week as having been a success but then warned that "certain forces in the U.S. now want to prevent what was achieved there."

“On the whole the meeting was successful,” Putin said in a televised speech to an audience of Russian ambassadors in Moscow, adding that "positive agreements" had resulted from the Monday meeting in Helsinki, Finland.

"It would be naive to think the problems would be solved in a few hours. But no one expected that," Putin said.

The meeting, he noted, had allowed the United States and Russia to start down the "path of positive change" and away from a confrontation he said was in some ways "worse than the Cold War."

PHOTO: Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian ambassadors and representatives to international organisations in Moscow, July 19, 2018. (Sergei Karpukhins/AFP/Getty Images) More

Putin then warned that progress was jeopardized by the uproar in the U.S. over the meeting, lambasting Trump's opponents and critics of the summit and accusing them of undermining the summit for their own political ends.

“We will see how events develop further, moreover, as certain forces are trying to disavow the results of the meeting in Helsinki,” Putin said. “We see that in the United States there are forces that are ready to easily sacrifice Russian-American relations to their ambitions.”

(MORE: European press mocks Trump as 'weak,' 'Putin's poodle' after summit)

PHOTO: President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands as they hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland July 16, 2018. (Grigory Dukor/Reuters) More

(MORE: President Trump not backing down amid flood of criticism over Putin meeting)

Putin's comments were a thinly veiled criticism of the uproar that has followed the Helsinki summit in the U.S., where Trump had come under attack from both Republicans and Democrats, as well as in the news media, for what critics have said was his failure to publicly confront Putin over Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

Instead, Trump has been accused of siding with the Russian leader against his own intelligence agencies and humiliating the U.S. by declining to challenge an authoritarian leader accused of attacking America. Democrats as well as some former government officials, including ex-CIA Director John Brennan, have a gone so far as to call Trump's behavior treasonous, while even some staunch Trump supporters have expressed distress at his performance with Putin.

PHOTO: Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian ambassadors and representatives to international organisations in Moscow, July 19, 2018. (Sergei Karpukhin/AFP/Getty Images) More

Trump has since sought to roll back his comments, saying on Tuesday that he had misspoke when he said he did not see why Russia would have meddled in 2016. But on Thursday, Trump went back on the offensive again to defend the summit, writing on Twitter that the media wanted to provoke a war with Russia.

"The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war. They are pushing so recklessly hard and hate the fact that I’ll probably have a good relationship with Putin. We are doing MUCH better than any other country!" Trump wrote.

Trump is facing some of the heaviest criticism of his presidency since he met with Putin for their first bilateral summit, where the two had announced they wanted to put an end to the confrontation that has characterized U.S.-Russia relations for the past several years. The two presidents met for over two hours one-on-one, with only translators, meaning that no written record of what was discussed exists.

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