President Donald Trump previously asked White House national security adviser John Bolton to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images White House: Bolton to meet with Russian counterpart next month

White House national security adviser John Bolton plans to meet with his Russian counterpart next month to follow up on President Donald Trump's historic sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.

Sanders’ statement came in response to a question about why the White House still hasn’t released details about the closed-door meeting between the two leaders a week after it took place.


“The only specific agreement made was the two national security teams from both the United States and Russia would continue at a working level,” she said at the press briefing before making the announcement about Bolton.

Sanders said that in addition to meeting with his Russian counterpart, Bolton will meet with European allies, though the focus of those discussions was unclear.

Sanders announced on Twitter last Thursday that Trump had asked Bolton to invite Putin to a second summit in Washington, D.C., just three days after the presidents met in Finland with only their translators present. Trump created a political firestorm in the news conference after the meeting when he said he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in U.S. elections, contradicting the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence agencies that Putin directly ordered a cyber-campaign to disrupt the election process.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trump attempted to walk back the statement after facing intense criticism, saying he meant to say that he didn’t see why it “wouldn’t” be Russia that interfered in the election. However, he again seemed to contradict his stance on the matter Sunday night, incorrectly tweeting that the Obama administration didn’t tell Trump’s campaign about Russia “because it is all a big hoax.” In fact, according to multiple news outlets, the intelligence agencies briefed Trump on Russia’s election interference in August 2016.

Sanders said the White House has yet to hammer out the specific details for Bolton’s planned meetings with Russia and European allies.