National security adviser John Bolton is in Russia ahead of an anticipated summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump next month. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Bolton 'expects' Russian election meddling to be discussed at Trump-Putin meeting

U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday that he “expects” Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election will be a topic of conversation when Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet face to face in the coming weeks.

Bolton, who has previously characterized Russian interference in U.S. elections as an “act of war,” said little else on the subject during a press conference Wednesday at Russia’s Interfax news agency except that he "expects it will be a subject of conversation between the two presidents."


Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters that the Kremlin denied having meddled in the most recent U.S. presidential election. Bolton declined to address his past remarks, which he made before joining the Trump administration.

The U.S. national security adviser said the time and location of the anticipated Trump-Putin summit would be announced Thursday. He said the U.S. government does not expect the face-to-face between the two presidents to produce “specific outcomes or decisions” but did not rule out that such deals could be struck.

Bolton also seemingly sought to throw cold water onto the criticism that is likely to come from Trump, whose 2016 campaign is the subject of a Justice Department investigation over allegations it colluded with the Russian government’s election interference efforts, agreeing to sit down with Putin.

“A lot of the president’s critics have tried to make political capital out of theories and suppositions that have turned out to be completely erroneous,” Bolton said. “But I think the president determined, despite the political noise in the united states, that direct communication between him and President Putin was in the interest of the united states, in the interest of Russia, in the interest of peace and security around the world.”

“A lot of people have said or implied over time that a meeting between President Trump and President Putin would somehow prove some nexus between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, which is complete nonsense,” he added later.

Bolton, who met Wednesday with Russian president Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials, said arms control was also among the topics discussed between the U.S. and Russian delegations. He said they did not discuss the prospect of allowing Russia to rejoin the G-7, a group of the world’s most powerful nations, an idea Trump floated before leaving for the group’s summit earlier this month.

The G-7 was formerly the G-8 until 2104, when Russia was expelled over its annexation of Crimea away from Ukraine. Asked whether the U.S. might recognize Crimea as part of Russia, Bolton said it remained U.S. policy not to do so.

Earlier Wednesday, Putin and Bolton each expressed hope that the latter’s current visit to Moscow might forge a path for improving a bilateral relationship that has chilled in recent years in the wake of Russia’s increased military activity in its region and efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“Your visit here to Moscow inspires hope that we will be able to take first steps to restore full-fledged relations between Russia and the United States,” Putin said, according to The Washington Post. “Russia never sought confrontation, and I hope that today we will be able to talk about what we can do from both sides in order to restore full-fledged relations on the foundation of equality and of respect for each other’s interests.”

Bolton, visiting Russia ahead of an anticipated summit between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, expressed hope that the two nations might find “areas where we can agree and make progress together.” He praised Russia’s handling of the World Cup, which it is hosting, reportedly drawing a smile from the Russian president.

The U.S. national security adviser also suggested that both nations have long seen the benefit in maintaining lines of communication, even during the Cold War.

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“Even in earlier days when our countries had differences, our leaders and their advisers met,” he added. “I think that was good for both countries, good for stability in the world, and President Trump feels very strongly on that subject.”

A Kremlin spokesman, who confirmed the meeting earlier Wednesday, said Bolton’s meetings, which also include Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, and members of Russia’s Security Council, was intended to bolster lines of contact between Russian and U.S. officials.

“We cannot boast about a wealth of bilateral contacts in our bilateral relationship,” Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Post, describing the purpose of Wednesday’s meetings with Bolton. “Such contacts are used to exchange views on the main problems in international affairs — they are rather clear and obvious — and to discuss the sad state of our bilateral relationship.”

Trump’s anticipated meeting with Putin has yet to be made official but is expected to be scheduled for next month. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in April that the two presidents had discussed meeting “in the ‘not-too-distant’ future,” the same language used last week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to describe the timing of a potential meeting.

Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Moscow and Washington reached an agreement on holding a summit between the Russian leader and Trump, according to news reports.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the two nations will announce a date a time for Trump's meeting with Putin on Thursday.

The summit between Trump and Putin is expected to take place on the back end of the U.S. president’s trip to Europe next month. Trump is scheduled to attend the NATO summit on July 11 and 12 and then visit Great Britain on July 13.

Details of the likely summit are still being worked out but the front-runner venue is Helsinki, a city with a history of hosting U.S.-Russian sit-downs that would also offer Putin sufficient travel flexibility to return to Russia in time for the final game of the World Cup on July 15.