Vladimir Putin says he's 'ready to go to Washington' to meet Donald Trump and invites him to Moscow

David Jackson | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – After President Donald Trump pushed their next meeting into next year, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Friday he is "ready to go to Washington," but conditions have to be right for another summit – and, for good measure, the two presidents also talked about yet another meeting later in Moscow.

"We are ready for such meetings, we are ready to invite President Trump to Moscow," Putin said during a visit to Johannesburg. "He has this invitation already and I told him about it."

It is not known when, or if, future Trump-Putin meetings might take place, though the White House said Trump is looking at sessions at the White House and the Kremlin.

“President Trump looks forward to having President Putin to Washington

after the first of the year," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. "And he is open to visiting Moscow upon receiving a formal invitation.”

Putin's comments came two days after the White House said that Trump – who had invited Putin to Washington for a meeting in the fall – wanted to delay things.

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"The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we’ve agreed that it will be after the first of the year," White House national security adviser John Bolton said.

Trump is still taking criticism for the July 16 one-on-one summit with Putin in Helsinki. Both Republicans and Democrats blasted Trump for being too deferential to the Russian leader.

The American president appeared to accept Putin's denials over the U.S. intelligence community's conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help get Trump elected.

Russian election activity is the subject of an ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, a probe Trump has denounced as a witch hunt.